Crimes for Christmas
by LuckyLadybug
Summary: CONCLUDED WITH CHAPTERS 19 AND 20! The YGO gang tries to rescue the children from Del Vinci's tyranny while Runihura the Destroyer watches and waits in the shadows. . . .
1. A Body in the Snow

**Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Crimes for Christmas**

**By LuckyLadybug**

**Notes: I still can't believe _YuleTide Terror_ is actually done! And actually . . . it isn't done because it was "to be continued," which this new mystery fic will do! Be prepared for new surprises and more weird and crazy goings-on! The story is mine, the characters from the YGO TV show are not, and sibling and friendship cuteness will abound! YAY!**

* * *

The winter night was cold and dark, the icy winds and snow whipping through the streets of Domino with almost blizzard-like ferocity. Most anyone with sense was curled up warm and snug in their homes with a blanket, a book, and hot chocolate. But a few brave souls were venturing around on the freezing streets for various reasons. Some had nowhere else to go. Some were attempting to complete last minute errands. And some others were looking for those missing.Yes, recently in Domino there had been a string of unexplained disappearances. None of the victims had been recovered as of yet and no one could see any similarities between any of them. They were young, they were old. Some were very healthy while others' conditions left something to be desired. The only thing any of them seemed to have in common was that they had all vanished. 

So pondered a man as he turned another corner, drawing his dark coat close around him. It was all strange and even ridiculous, but he had the distinct feeling that there was more to this than meets the eye. One of his own friends had been a victim, having disappeared three days before. Right now he and another of his friends were searching for the missing in different parts of the city and not having much luck. But he refused to give up. He wouldn't give up on any of the few people that he numbered among his "family."

"Mister! Please, you've gotta come help!" 

He turned around at the young voice in surprise, wondering what a child was doing out on a night like this, and found himself looking at a small boy with reddish hair and wide, worried, gray eyes. He wasn't dressed appropriately for the weather and somehow he reminded the man of someone, though he couldn't place exactly who.

"Please!" the boy said again without waiting for an answer. "My brother's hurt. You've gotta come help him. He's hurt awfully bad!" Tears filled his eyes as he turned and ran into a nearby alley, not stopping when the man called for him to wait.

He looked down at the flurries of snow as he chased after the child, suddenly realizing he saw something amiss. Red was streaked through the whiteness graphically, signaling that someone nearby was obviously injured—probably the brother the young boy had spoken of. This would have had to be recently done. The snow was falling so heavily that within minutes the previous layer was always covered over. Indeed, as he wandered down the darkened path, he soon found a body laying limp in the snow, blood spilling from several bad wounds. A trenchcoat was adorning the hapless person and the cloth was spread open to reveal a midriff-displaying tank top and dark, torn pants. If the wounds hadn't killed him, certainly the exposure to the cold must have. Nearby in the snow was a knife stained with crimson, and as the man drew closer, he could see that the form was holding a gun in its hand.

"You inflicted pain on your own body and then killed yourself, eh?" he muttered, leaning over the pale corpse. "This world just got to be too much for you?" He could understand how one could become that depressed and feel so alone as to think that was only one way out. He had felt depressed and alone many a time, though he hadn't ever tried to end his life. As he idly brushed some of the gathering flakes off of the ice-cold form, he suddenly let out a gasp of disbelief. This was his friend, the one who had been missing. In the dim light due to the storm, he hadn't been able to see the face at first. But there was no mistaking it now.

Immediately he knelt down, easily removing the gun from the limp, cold fingers. This wasn't right. He wouldn't have killed himself. He wasn't a suicidal person. And the dead man's friend knew in an instant what the true explanation was. _This was murder. He had been tortured and then shot to his death, and whoever was responsible had left him here trying to make it look like he was an extremely depressed person who had ended it all!_

The blonde man clenched his fists in rage at the atrocity and then bent down, desperately searching for any possible signs of life. If the body hadn't been here very long, maybe there was still a chance, if he hadn't been dead when he had first came to this place. . . .

After several moments he leaned back, all his efforts having been in vain. His friend was truly dead then. He had lost someone else. Feeling numb, he carefully took the body into his strong arms and stood again. He would make certain that everyone knew this person had been murdered in cold blood. And he would avenge this death. It hadn't been supposed to happen. When he found out who had done this, they would pay. He had a good idea of who had been responsible.

Suddenly remembering the child who had led him here in the first place, he cast his gaze around the dark alley but saw no one. The boy had simply vanished. And what was more, there were no footprints at all. The snow wouldn't have covered them over that fast. It was as if the child had never existed at all! But that was impossible. He knew he had seen him. . . .

_Wait. . . ._

He looked down at the corpse in his arms. That was who the boy reminded him of! He had the same red hair and grayish eyes. And he had said his brother was hurt. . . . Brother. . . . _Now he understood._

And then another new realization occurred to him. _Hurt . . . not dead. . . ._ What if his friend had gone into hypothermia from the cold and he was still alive, though he didn't appear to be? _No one suffering from hypothermia is dead unless they're warm and dead._ But then he had lost so much blood as well. It was pooled around him and there were patches of it all the way to the front of the alley. What must have happened was that he had been fatally injured somewhere and then dragged here by the assassins, blood dripping in every direction. It made the blue-eyed man angry just thinking about it.

Without wasting another moment he headed out of the alley in determination. If there was any chance of saving his friend, there was no time to lose.

* * *

Elsewhere in the city, Runihura was planning his first attack of destruction upon the unsuspecting city of Domino. He had stood by, watching as Priest Seto carried out endless mayhem and madness—possessed by his wicked father Akunadin. Now that Priest Seto—Seth—was free again and in control of his body, Runihura thought that it was about time that he took center stage. He stood on the roof of KaibaCorp, the long, spiked bangs draped at either side of his face blowing about in the fierce winds. _Pathetic humans._ While Runihura might seem mischievous when first meeting him, he certainly wasn't any pushover, and he was a lot smarter than some people might take him to be. He hadn't been given the Egyptian name meaning "Destroyer" for nothing. 

"Seto Kaiba, you have no idea of what's standing on your company's building," Runihura cackled to himself as he let the electricity spark at his fingertips. "But you will quickly find out!" For his first official act of catastrophe, he would do something that might seem relatively minor. But then, short-circuiting the company that owned most of Domino City wouldn't be all so minor at that. His first act of destruction back in ancient Egypt hadn't seem enormous either, but it had alerted everyone to the kinds of powers he possessed. Smirking, he set about overloading the amount of electricity KaibaCorp was taking in. When he heard a resounding explosion from within the building, he gave a wild grin of satisfaction. "It's begun," he uttered before teleporting away. Surely the one who's attention he wanted would instantly suspect that he was responsible for this.

"Holy moly," someone standing below on the sidewalk muttered in a soft accent, shielding blue eyes as he watched the entire scene that culminated in the disappearance of the strange man. Shaking his head, he soon climbed onto his motorcycle and rode off.

* * *

Seto Kaiba found himself being awakened out of a dead sleep by the ringing of the telephone. Muttering to himself as he slowly became aware of what was happening, he groped for the phone and said something into the receiver that roughly translated to "This is Kaiba. What do you want?"

In the next moment he bolted up, completely awake. "What?!" he demanded loudly, his blue eyes flashing angrily and with disbelief. This couldn't be right. Somehow all the electricity at KaibaCorp had overloaded, causing small explosions throughout the building. There was no way it could have been due to the storm. It was very deliberate and obvious sabotage.

"I'm sorry, sir," one of Seto's security guards said regretfully. "I don't know how anyone could have gotten inside to do this! The only other way could have been if someone was on the roof and had gotten into the fusebox up there, but then again, they couldn't have gotten on the roof unless they had been inside the building. . . ." He trailed off, confused beyond belief.

Seto growled angrily. "How bad is the damage?" he asked, easing himself out of bed. There was no way he'd be sleeping anymore tonight.

There was a pause as the man checked. "It can all be repaired, sir, and the generators are on," he reported at last. "Luckily the infirmary wasn't affected by what happened. But still. . . ." He shook his head, completely baffled. "I just don't understand. . . ."

"I want all the security tapes checked immediately!" Seto ordered coldly. "This is outrageous." _There was just no rest for the weary, was there._ Then there were those people who were missing all over the city. Seto had lost at least one good employee among them. He was determined to get to the bottom of everything that was going on, though he didn't know how he would.

As soon as he hung up with his guard, the phone rang again. In irritation Seto snapped it up, wondering what was going on _now._ "What is it?!" he growled. "This had better be good."

The person on the other end of the phone was the last person Seto had ever expected to hear. "Oh, Kaiba-boy!" Maximillion Pegasus scolded gently, clucking his tongue. "Is that any way to address an old friend?" He leaned back in his office, looking out at the view of the city. Everything looked normal, but appearances could be quite deceiving.

Seto's eyes narrowed. "Pegasus?!" he cried in utter astonishment. _What could he want?!_

"That's my name, creating cards is my game," Pegasus smiled, sounding as relaxed—and to Seto, just as annoying—as ever. But he did have a serious reason for calling his business rival, which he soon explained.

"I was merely wondering if you were having the same kinds of trouble that have been plaguing me lately," he said after Seto had delivered several more vexed retorts to his comments. "You see, Kaiba-boy, I've lost at least three employees over the past several days! I just can't understand where they went. They all simply vanished without a trace."

Seto would have made another snide remark, if he hadn't been so surprised. He had thought the problem of the disappearing people was only happening in Domino. But if Pegasus, down in California, was having the same problem, what if it was something happening nation-wide? Or perhaps that was too ridiculous. _What was he thinking? All of this was too ridiculous._ "Actually, a lot of people have disappeared from all over Domino City," he responded coldly, it suddenly dawning on him that it was strange that Pegasus would know Seto's home telephone number. He certainly wasn't listed in the directory. Of course, Pegasus had ways of finding out just about everything.

"Hmm," Pegasus mused. "You know, I actually suspected as much. But it certainly is strange, isn't it, Kaiba-boy? Where could they all go off to?" He frowned, going over the latest reports for his company. Despite his nonchalant attitude toward it all, he was starting to believe that the disappearances were something to be concerned about.

"I'm certain I have no idea," Seto replied coldly. "Maybe you do?"

"Why, you certainly aren't accusing me of being responsible!?" Pegasus exclaimed in mock outrage. "Kaiba-boy, I would think you should know better."

Seto growled. "I know that I don't particularly want to continue this conversation," he responded.

As it turned out, he didn't have to. In the next instant Velma the maid was frantically rapping on his door, her Southern voice sprinkled with worry and fear.

"Mr. Kaiba, sir!" she shrieked. "Someone's breaking in!"


	2. Old Enemies

Seto immediately threw the door open and looked at Velma in disbelief from her news. "What?!" he cried, still holding the phone—Pegasus all but forgotten. "The entire mansion is on high security!" And it had been since Del Vinci had come back several weeks ago. How could someone have broken in?

Velma clasped her hands nervously. "I know I heard something, Mr. Kaiba!" she said in a hushed tone, apparently afraid of being overheard by whoever had broken in.

Pegasus, hearing all of the conversation, frowned deeply. "Kaiba-boy?" he called, though he was ignored. Instead he was greeted by a scream, a thump, and the sound of the phone being dropped. Becoming a bit more concerned about the current state of things, he straightened up in the chair and eventually stood. "Hello? Is anyone there?" he demanded.

The line went dead.

* * *

He was falling . . . falling further and deeper into the darkness that was death. Long ago he had given up hope of rising again. He had felt coldness enveloping his entire body and the warmth and the blood leaving him. He had been too weak to scream for help; most of the time he had been in an unconscious state, though he could still feel the life slipping away from him. Then all senses had fled, including the feel of the icy snow against his body. Ever since then he had been steadily descending into the irreversible darkness. Eventually even his spirit ceased to be aware of what was happening or that he even existed. _It was all over then. . . . He wasn't coming back. _

_And yet . . . he must have still been aware after all, for he heard something, something from far away, calling to him, addressing him by name. . . ._

_A voice? Where was it coming from? Who was even calling him? It _was_ him being called, wasn't it? It sounded like his name . . . at least . . . he thought it did. But how could anyone be calling him so he could hear it? He was dead. He wasn't supposed to be able to hear anything anymore, not now. But he heard his name being called again._

"Can you hear me? If you can, you have to give me some kind of a sign. Do you understand that?"

_The voice was gruff, but obviously tinged with concern. He felt a rough hand grip firmly at his ice-cold shoulder and felt grateful for even the tiniest bit of warmth, though he could not respond. Or . . . could he?_

"You look dead." _He felt the hand tighten its grip._ "But your brother didn't give up on you. I'm not going to, either, not unless you prove us wrong." _The voice quieted, sounding desperate._ "Wake up."

_Then he realized that he was not dead. Somehow he had survived. Slowly his eyes opened. Though he could not focus properly, this showed his friend that he was still alive. As he closed his eyes again in weariness, he knew that he was going to recover. Somehow. . . ._

* * *

Yugi was just as startled to receive a phone call from Pegasus as Seto had been—perhaps even more so. It wasn't every day, after all, that a former enemy called in the middle of the night to inform him that something strange was happening at the Kaiba Manor. The boy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he tried to comprehend this strangeness.

"You say you were talking to Kaiba and then the phone went dead?" he asked, trying to stifle a yawn. Worry started to grow as he wondered what could have gone wrong at the Kaibas'. They had been having so much trouble all the past days. It looked like every day right up to Christmas was going to be eventful, at this rate.

"That's right, Yugi-boy," Pegasus confirmed. "In light of all the odd things befalling us of late, I thought perhaps you should go investigate."

Yugi, who was still trying to wake up, slowly slid off the bed and to the floor. He wanted to ask Pegasus why he had been talking to Seto in the first place and why he had bothered to call and tell him of the possible problem, but Pegasus simply said that he was certain Yugi would figure out what was going on and then hung up. Blinking, the boy thought for a moment and then looked over at Atemu, who was sitting on the edge of the bed with crossed arms.

"What do you think we should do, Yami?" he asked.

Yami Yugi sighed, shaking his head. "It seems that the only thing we can do is go find out what went wrong," he replied.

And that was how Yugi and Atemu wound up outside Kaiba Manor at four-thirty in the morning. The gate was standing wide open, which was highly unusual and also a concern. The security guards didn't seem to be around at all. And as the duo slowly began walking up the winding path leading to the porch, they saw blood splattered about in the snow. Yugi cringed.

"Pegasus was right," he whispered in horror. "Something terrible's happened!" He quickened his pace, now growing concerned for Seto's safety. There was no telling what his rival might have gotten into.

Yami Yugi made certain that he stayed right by Yugi as they entered the quiet mansion. He sensed that a dark presence had, indeed, been there—but it was gone now. He didn't doubt that it had left much destruction in its wake, however. "Kaiba?" he called, heading up the stairs after determining that no one seemed to be on the first floor. Yugi trailed behind him, also calling for the other boy. There was no answer.

And then suddenly Seto was standing right in front of them both, having come out of his room. But the Pharaoh and his descendent drew back in shock when they saw him. His flesh was pale and ghostly, his eyes were vacant, and his entire appearance was haggard and weary. He looked many years older than his true age of sixteen.

"Kaiba, what happened?!" Yugi finally managed to ask, his violet eyes wide and alarmed.

Seto gripped at the doorframe with a shaking hand, the knuckles turning white. "He was here," he replied, though still not really seeming aware of Yugi's and the Pharaoh's presence. "Gozaburo. . . ."

Yugi stared at him, aghast and in disbelief. "What?" he cried in shock. "Gozaburo? But how?" Gozaburo was dead. He had downloaded his mind and spirit into the virtual world he'd created, but that dimension had since been destroyed. How could Gozaburo appear in this world, even in spirit only? It didn't make sense! He should have been destroyed as well.

Seto turned away, facing the window. "I don't know," he growled, "but he was here. I'm not insane, Yugi. He was here!" His voice boomed out and resonated as he shook with rage. How dare Gozaburo show his face here after what he'd done? How dare he come into the home that was now Seto's, interfering with the life that was now Seto's, and taunt him as he had done when none of that was Seto's?! He had no right. But of course, that was why he had done it. He wanted to make Seto angry.

"What did he want, Kaiba?" Yami Yugi asked sternly.

Seto almost seemed to sneer in twisted amusement at the question. "What he's always wanted, ever since I took it away from him!" He gestured wildly with his arm, indicating the manor and the Kaiba Corporation building, the latter of which was visible through the window. "He wants everything that I worked hard to earn, because he's a sore loser and he won't take defeat lightly. But this life is a game called Survival of the Fittest. I've already won, and he can't reclaim what he had—not when he was foolish enough to seal his mind away in the pathetic computer world he created!" His temper was rising and he knew it. Gozaburo was one subject he couldn't remain calm about.

"Big brother?"

Everyone whirled at the entrance of the sleepy and confused Mokuba. The child rubbed at his eyes as he focused on the older boy, wondering what had gotten him so upset. "What's wrong, Seto?" he asked now. "Did something bad happen?"

Seto took a deep breath, trying to get his emotions under control again. "No," he said finally, making a vow to himself silently, "nothing bad happened yet. And I won't let it happen at all." By this he meant nothing bad had happened to his brother, the one he cared about the most. He could fix whatever happened at KaibaCorp and he could deal with Gozaburo, but if Mokuba was taken from him, nothing could ever fix that. That was why Del Vinci had to be caught at all costs—he wanted to take away what was most precious and absolutely irreplaceable to Seto.

Mokuba blinked at him curiously. "Okay," he said slowly. "But . . . I heard you yelling, Seto. Something must've happened!" He glanced over and, seeing Yugi and Atemu, stared in confusion. "What are you guys doing here in the middle of the night?" he asked, now knowing that something was wrong.

Before either Yugi or the Pharaoh could answer, Seto answered for them. "They were just checking up on things because of all the reports of missing people," he said quickly, not wanting Mokuba to know what had actually transpired. Actually, now that he thought of it, he didn't know how those two had wound up here. He had just suddenly heard them calling for him, but he had been so disturbed over Gozaburo's appearance that he hadn't even given it much thought, as he normally would. Instead he had actually told them what had happened. He frowned. That wasn't like him, either. Normally he would try to make out that all was well.

Sensing that Seto felt the way he did about Mokuba knowing, Yugi simply smiled and nodded to Seto's statement. "That's right," he said, realizing it wasn't actually a lie. After all, when Pegasus had told him about what had happened, Yugi had been afraid that they would find Seto and Mokuba both disappeared—perhaps permanently. "But it looks like everything is okay, so. . . ." He was about to say that they'd be going when Yami Yugi gave him a certain look meaning "Don't." And so, blinking, Yugi didn't.

After Mokuba had said goodbye and Seto was taking him back to bed, Yugi turned to look at his Yami curiously. "Do you think Gozaburo really came here?" he asked quietly. It seemed odd, he thought, that Mokuba would have slept through everything. He didn't know that the child was an especially heavy sleeper. Maybe there hadn't been anything for Mokuba to get woken up about. He hated to think it, but what if Seto truly had imagined Gozaburo's visit? Where there any witnesses who could attest that something had taken place?

As it turned out, this was Atemu's question as well. "I don't know, Yugi," he sighed. "Anything is possible." He glanced around the seemingly deserted hallways. "I wonder if any of Kaiba's servants are awake and could tell us something." In hopes of finding one, perhaps the chatty maid Velma, he headed off down the hall. Blinking, Yugi followed slowly.

"Shouldn't we tell Kaiba something before wandering through his house?" the boy worried. He suddenly remembered the blood they had seen out on the grounds and then realized that they needed to tell Seto about that and find out who had been hurt . . . or killed. That definitely hadn't been imagined. Whether Gozaburo had come or not, something had gone on.

Yami Yugi shook his head firmly. "He would only think we didn't believe him if we said we wanted to question the staff," he replied, "and that wouldn't make our task any easier." He also remembered the blood and intended to ask Seto about it, but first he wanted to talk to some of the servants.

Yugi sighed. "I guess you're right," he agreed, though he still felt uneasy about walking all over Kaiba Manor without permission. "But what if whatever did this is still hanging around?" Then the Kaibas would still be in danger and they shouldn't leave them alone.

"I don't believe it is, Yugi," Atemu reassured him then. "I did feel traces of a dark presence when we first came in, but the actual entity seemed to have left. I haven't felt it come back." He could only hope he was right.

* * *

_As he became conscious, it felt like a thousand swords were being thrust into his body all at once. Not to mention his head was pounding. The pain was unbelievable. And yet he knew it was real. He had been taken prisoner, and it didn't take long for him to realize that they were torturing him. He coughed up blood as he tried to raise himself up to see what on earth they were doing to him, but he was pushed down as soon as he attempted it._

_Then Del Vinci was sneering down at him, having come in and found him being tormented—and approving of it. But then of course, why wouldn't he approve? He was probably the one who had ordered it in the first place. "You're going to give me the information I want before I'm done with you," he vowed._

_But it wasn't just for information's sake that he was being tormented to his death. This was punishment for going against the gang. He had been a spy, an infiltrator, with a self-given mission to break up Del Vinci's racket. He had been careful, extremely careful and clever, as was his way, but Del Vinci was clever as well, and he had been found out by the gang. For that, he had to suffer._

_He spat at the Mafia don hatefully and struggled against the chains and the slab he was bound to, his blood splattering to the floor. "I don't have a desire to ruin Seto Kaiba anymore," he said coldly, "and even if I did, I wouldn't sell out to scum like you. I have something you've probably never heard of—a sense of honor and justice." He started to cough again, feeling a wave of dizziness sweep over him. He must have lost more blood than he'd originally thought._

_Del Vinci struck him across the face. "Honor?" he repeated as if the word was a joke. "Was it honor that possessed you to trick me and my men into thinking we could trust you?" He looked into the young man's gray eyes with utter contempt. "I'll make you eat your words," he asserted, "and you'll tell me what I want to know, even if you don't want to tell it. I'll choke it out of you if I have to!" With that he wrapped his hands around the exposed neck, squeezing just enough to cause his victim to sputter and gasp. Just before he was certain he would pass out, the pressure was released. "But I can't have you dying just yet," Del Vinci smirked._

_And so the nightmare went on. The hours and days melted into one long stretch of pain and spilled blood, mixed with Del Vinci's taunts and mock attempts at killing him. But somehow the henchmen must have taken their torture too far and against Del Vinci's wishes, because they had apparently decided he was dead after one particularly grueling session (during which he still hadn't told them anything). Then he had been given the same treatment that other unfortunate souls before him had endured—they had shot him in the heart (the bullet barely missing it, in his case) and then morbidly dumped his body in the cold alley, forcing a gun into his hand. He would look like a suicide victim, they hoped. But they hadn't stopped to consider all the many wounds he had that he couldn't have inflicted upon himself. Any pathologist performing an autopsy would have concluded that he had been tortured to death. Del Vinci would not be pleased with those men, he was certain._

Now he was grasping for consciousness desperately, tired of being lost in his memories of how he'd been abused for what he knew and what he had done. He wanted to claw his way back to the surface and force his eyes open, but it wasn't as easy as he wished it was.Somewhere in the distance he heard his brother calling to him, telling him he needed to wake up, but he still couldn't seem to gather enough strength to do so. Maybe soon he could. . . . Soon, but not now. . . .

* * *

Marik was just coming downstairs for a drink of ice water when he noticed Ishizu sitting on the couch, seeming to be staring off into the distance. _She must be having a vision again,_ he realized. _But . . . is it good or bad?_ So often Ishizu's visions were dark and spoke of dreary and disturbing futures. Luckily, those visions had mostly been able to be changed before the disasters within them came to pass. But he also knew of many times when the depressing things Ishizu saw became fact.

After he'd had his fill of cold water and was coming back into the living room, he found that Ishizu was still in the same position. Frowning a bit, he came closer. Usually the visions didn't last very long. What could be different about this one?

As he approached, Ishizu started and then smiled. "What are you doing up, my brother?" she said softly as he sat down beside her on the couch. Marik told her and then asked curiously what she had been seeing in her vision.

"Is it more trouble?" he asked, certain that he knew the answer already.

Ishizu sighed, putting an arm around the younger boy and holding him close. "I am not certain," she replied, "but most likely it is. What I saw was Domino City during an extreme snowstorm. I saw blood in the snow and a young man who looked as though he had committed suicide. Then the scene changed and a man in the shadows was terrorizing everyone. People were running in all directions, screaming in panic, and others were laying in the street, unable to get up." She paused, gently stroking the teenager's hair. It was so hard to comprehend that Marik was already sixteen. It seemed to her as though he should still be a tiny child. The years passed so fast. . . .

"I was in my own vision," she continued now, "and in it, I heard the sound of motorcycles in the distance. 'Are they our salvation or simply more enemies?' I wondered." This part puzzled her most of all. Well, that and the opening scene of her vision. Who could that man be? Was he already dead? Did he have some important part to play in what would take place?

Marik smiled a bit. "Maybe you were hearing me and I was coming to the rescue," he joked gently. But somehow he had the feeling that whoever was being referred to was not someone either of them knew.

Ishizu smiled as well. "As long as you are capable of it, I know you always will," she said fondly before her mind wandered. When would they find out the secrets that her vision held? Would the events happen before Christmas, after, or had some of them already

taken place? She wished she knew.


	3. Newcomers Revealed

_The ninja star jabbed hard into his back, near his right shoulder. He gasped, blood flying from the wound and trickling from his mouth. Clever as always, he had somehow managed to pick the locks of his manacles with a penknife someone had foolishly left stuck in the slab after trying and failing to throw it into him. But as he had gotten off the cold surface and had tried to stand on weak legs, someone hidden in the shadows had thrown this new harsh weapon at him._

_Shaking, he reached over his shoulder and pulled the star out gingerly, not especially wanting to get his hand cut as well. Hearing a nasty laugh behind him, he whirled just in time to dodge a flurry of the stars that were being thrown from all directions. He knew no one had been in those locations before. Where had they come from? How had they gotten into the room without his knowledge?_

_Abruptly Del Vinci opened the door and entered, tripping him and sending him sprawling to the floor. The crime lord laughed when he heard his victim hiss in pain. Already he had been hurt badly, though it had only been a day. Del Vinci wondered just how many of those days the man would be able to endure. It was obvious that he was a fighter and not one to go down easily at all—and Del Vinci knew that he wouldn't tell his secrets as long as he was aware enough to know what was happening._

"_You're starting to exasperate me with your defiance," he remarked, kicking at the body with his foot as the young man was trying to rise. "Too much is a very bad thing, especially if you're my prisoner."_

_Gray eyes flashed angrily as their owner moved back and carefully stood, leaning on the dreaded slab for support. "I don't have any shortage of it," he retorted, "and to give in would be to show weakness."_

"_On the contrary, it would show you valued your life," Del Vinci smirked. With a snap of his fingers at least five ninjas descended on the hapless captive, dragging him back to the floor. He struggled, fighting with them viciously and as best as he could, but eventually he was overpowered, being in an already-weakened state. His vision swam as the final, restricting blows were laid into his body, as well as another sharp star. Del Vinci only laughed at his torment._

I value my life. I do. But I can't wake up. It's as if some invisible barrier is holding my spirit back from re-entering the conscious world. But I'm not giving up. I've been called stubborn by some and I imagine it's true. Del Vinci's men won't be rid of me this easily. And I will take them all down, as I vowed to myself I'd do. His atrocities won't go on much longer.

_These were his thoughts as he continued to struggle against the bindings of his unconscious and nearly comatose state. As he struggled, his nightmares continued._

* * *

Raphael sighed, looking down at his friend with weary eyes. He had been unconscious for ages now, ever since he had weakly opened his eyes and proved that he was still alive. That had been an immense weight off of Raphael's shoulders. At least he hadn't lost him. He may be suffering from hypothermia and from obviously having been grotesquely tortured, but he was still alive. 

Raphael studied the other young man again. His flesh was pale and cold to the touch, his breathing coming in slow, rasping gasps that were only now starting to even out. But from the pained expression he bore, it was obvious that he was in another world. Raphael shook his head, pulling the quilt higher over the weak and shivering form.

"What happened to you, Alister?" he said quietly. "Who did this to you and why?" He knew that the red-haired man had been acting strange of late and more aloof than was even normal for him. Something had angered him—that much was quite obvious. That was why he had gone off the other night and never came back. Apparently, Raphael determined after remembering an odd conversation they had had before Alister went off, he had wanted to right a wrong. Instead, the "wrong" had nearly eradicated him. He clenched his fists. "And why didn't you tell us?"

Oh, never mind. He knew why Alister hadn't really told either him or Valon. Whatever he had been trying to resolve, he most likely had wanted to do it by himself and to not get them involved, for whatever reason. Alister was a lot more aloof and secretive than the other two. He rarely talked to them and half the time, when he did, it was because he and Valon were at odds again.

Speaking of Valon . . . where was he? Raphael narrowed his eyes. They had agreed to meet back at the home they owned within three hours. After taking Alister to the nearest hospital—the Kaiba Corporation Infirmary, ironically, considering that Seto had been Alister's hated enemy when they were with Doom—Raphael had left a note at the home telling Valon what had happened and then had gone back to the infirmary. It was past three hours since he had seen Valon last. If he hadn't gotten held up, he should have found his way here by now.

* * *

Khu wandered down the streets of Domino as well, irritated by the icy quality of the snow as it blew all around him and settled happily in his dark hair. It wasn't especially by his choice that he and Seth were still here, though he did remember about the Destroyer and how he needed to find some way to seal him back in the Eternal Sleep. Khu had helped to release him, after all. The tan-skinned man growled as he remembered this. That had been one of the most ridiculous things he had ever done. And it certainly hadn't helped anything.

"A curse on it all," he muttered bitterly.

While he was grateful beyond measure that Seth was freed from Akunadin's evil control, Khu wasn't all that happy that the priest had renewed his friendship with Pharaoh Atemu. Khu couldn't forgive Atemu for the wrong he believed the other man had done back in ancient Egypt. His and Seth's mother had died in the palace prison, despite pleas to release her. But she had done nothing wrong. Because of what Khu was certain was the Pharaoh's action, Seth didn't even remember their mother at all. When news of her death had reached Khu, that was when he had vowed that someday he would overthrow the Pharaoh.

_Of course,_ Khu thought in frustration, _Seth _would_ have to believe that the Pharaoh wasn't really at fault._ Seth had been certain that Atemu would never do anything that he didn't think was for the good of Egypt. And since allowing Amunet to wither away in prison could hardly be for the good of Egypt, Atemu must have not been involved or have even known about it, Seth reasoned.

As Khu turned a corner and realized that he was in the ritzy part of the city, he was suddenly knocked over by a masked man fleeing from the direction of the Kaiba Manor. The former adviser to the Pharaoh let out a loud Egyptian curse as he was thrown backwards into a snow drift, shaking his fist at the departing stranger—who didn't even bother to look back to see what damage had been caused.

Khu picked himself up gingerly, not wanting to slip and fall down into the coldness once more. As he stood, a small piece of paper fluttered from his lap and to the ground. Blinking in surprise, he reached down and picked it up, realizing that the rude person who had knocked him down must have dropped it. He turned it over to read what was on it and then frowned deeply. "It's nothing but jibberish!" he muttered, staring at the odd symbols that graced the bit of parchment. A soft smirk came over his features when he determined that the symbols were actually hieroglyphs, though not Egyptian in origin. "Very interesting and possibly useful jibberish," he added to himself, deciding to hold onto it.

* * *

Téa was awake in the middle of the night again, as was becoming normal for her, when she had the odd, all-too-familiar feeling that her friends were in danger, including Seto Kaiba. Biting her lip, she got out of bed and went over to the window, watching the snowflakes dance and swirl to the ground. "What's going on?" she whispered. It had only been that morning when she and the others had gathered at Yugi's and had listened to the report of the missing people. Everything was so strange and made no sense whatsoever! What could have happened to those people, especially Gabrielle? And why had Gabrielle behaved so unusually?

"Téa?"

She started, certain that she'd just heard a soft British voice calling her name. As she moved closer to the window, rubbing the glass clear with her hand, she noticed a worried Bakura standing below on the snow-covered lawn. Of all things she had expected to see, this was not one of them!

"Bakura!" she exclaimed, raising the window slightly and being grateful for the screen that prevented snowflakes from coming inside uninvited. "What's going on? Is something wrong?" It wasn't normal for him to be wandering around this late at night. At least . . . she didn't think it was. Actually, now that she thought of it, she didn't really know what Bakura's late-night habits were.

The white-haired boy bit his lip, shivering slightly in the cold. "Well, I hope not," he said slowly, his shoulders slumping. "You see, Téa, that woman Frances has gone off again and . . . and I think she might've taken Oreo with her!"

Téa just stared in disbelief, wondering if she'd heard right. "Why would Frances want Oreo?" she demanded, leaning on the windowsill. _Well, there goes any chance of getting more sleep tonight._

Bakura shook his head helplessly. "I don't know," he replied, "but Oreo isn't at home and neither is Frances. Yami didn't know that Oreo went out, and Father doesn't remember, and the only thing I can think of is that Frances took her!" Of course, Frances would have had a hard time getting Oreo out the door with her. The cat despised Mr. Ryou's girlfriend with a passion, hissing and spitting whenever she was in the room. It had gotten to the point where Mr. Ryou had told Bakura to lock Oreo in his room when they knew Frances would be coming over.

Téa frowned. "Do you know where she was going?" she asked.

"I'm afraid not," Bakura said sadly. "I already tried calling her hotel and she isn't there. But anyway, just in case she didn't take her and Oreo's just out wandering somewhere, I was wondering if you'd possibly seen her. . . ." He shifted from one foot to the other. His Yami was still recovering from the harsh stab wound he had taken at the cemetery and he was in no condition to go looking for the cat. Bakura had snuck out of his house without either the thief or his father realizing.

"I'm sorry, Bakura," Téa replied, genuinely regretting that she couldn't help him, "I haven't seen Oreo—or any cat at all, in fact." Mulling over what to do, she then smiled and offered to help him look.

Bakura blushed deeply. "Oh, I wouldn't want to impose," he began, but Téa assured him that he wasn't imposing at all and that she wanted to help. She invited him into the living room while she quickly changed and left a note in case her parents woke up, and then the two headed out to look for one black-and-white cat.

* * *

The black-and-white cat, meanwhile, had indeed wandered off, but she hadn't intended to go very far. As it turned out, however, she wound up quite a distance from Bakura's home, investigating a parked motorcycle. She rubbed against it, purred, and then hopped up onto the seat, curling in a ball. She would wait for its owner to come over. Then maybe he would take her back home in style.

She didn't have long to wait. A shadow fell across her five minutes later and she looked up into startled blue eyes as a short young man with wild brown hair approached. Then she purred again, turning up the charm, and let out a plaintive meow. That always got the tenderhearts.

"Well, what have we here?" the man, who scarcely looked older than a boy in his late teens, uttered in surprise as he reached out to lift Oreo down. But as he did, the cat reached out as well, placing her paws on his hands and purring again. Her collar and nametag jingled as she moved, revealing Bakura's name, address, and telephone number.

As she had hoped, the human shook his head in astonishment and then grudgingly decided to take her home, since it was on his way anyway. He climbed onto the motorcycle, Oreo leaping onto his shoulder and then into his lap, and revved the engine after putting his helmet on. Oreo could hear him muttering about electrical psychos who stood on roofs and then vanished, hurt friends, and smart cats—and she smiled to herself in satisfaction.

* * *

Back at the Kaiba Manor, Yugi and Atemu had finally managed to find the maid Velma hiding out in the kitchen and rolling out dough to apparently try to calm her nerves. She had a bandage wrapped around her right upper arm, Yugi observed, and her curly red hair was a mess in all directions. She was very high-strung by nature and if something had happened such as Gozaburo's ghost appearing, Velma definitely would have been extremely upset over it.

"Um, hi, Velma. . . ." Yugi tried to greet her without startling her, but his attempt failed. She jumped a mile and shrieked, raising the rolling pin into the air as she assumed a defensive stance. When she saw who her visitors were, she sighed and slammed the pin back on the table.

"Don't come up on me like that!" she scolded. "I thought you were that awful man and his henchmen, returning to complete whatever job they came here to do!" She brushed a stray piece of hair out of her eyes, frowning down at them.

"And what man was that?" Yami Yugi asked calmly, studying her.

Velma wrung her hands. "Mr. Kaiba's terrible step-father!" she said firmly. "He just barged in like he owned the place and a couple of ninjas were with him and they shoved me into Mr. Kaiba and we both fell down!" Her eyes flashed with the memories. "They didn't have any manners at all and then they started cartin' me off so that Gozaburo could talk to Mr. Kaiba alone."

Yugi stared at Velma, aghast at the images he was seeing in his mind. "What happened then?" he asked in alarm.

"I hit 'em with my broom," Velma said proudly, "and they went flyin'!" She looked down. "But whatever Gozaburo said to Mr. Kaiba must've been awful. He was actin' really dazed and upset when the guy left, like . . . like he couldn't believe it'd actually happened. But I can't believe it really happened, either, so. . . ."

"You didn't hear what was said?" Yami Yugi interrupted. "Nor if any other ninjas were afoot?"

Before Velma could answer, the back door opened and two security guards staggered in. One was limping profusely and the other was clutching at his arm as if it pained him. Velma, Yugi, and Atemu all turned their attention to this sight, stunned and appalled.

"Frank! Darien!" Velma gasped in shock, recognizing them both—as they often dropped in after going off duty to get pieces of her famous pies or some of her restaurant-quality sandwiches. "What on earth happened to you two?!"

The one who seemed to be Frank sank down into a chair, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe what had happened. Darien stood over him, making sure he would be alright, and then looked up at Velma. "Gozaburo Kaiba was here," he said grimly, barely able to believe what he had seen. "But that's not all. He had some ninja friends and one of them spoke to Frank and me right before he knocked us out."

Frank looked up, nodding in confirmation. "And what he said was really weird," he remarked.

"Well, what was it?!" Yami Yugi demanded, slightly impatient.

Frank paused for a moment, gathering his strength. "He said that some old acquaintance of Mr. Kaiba's had been living in the city and to tell Mr. Kaiba that this acquaintance killed himself tonight," he replied then, frowning as he knew the message made no sense.

At that moment a crash and a familiar, pained yell came from upstairs.

"Kaiba!" Yugi gasped in shock. _What if one of Gozaburo's lackeys was still in the house?_


	4. Awaken

Quickly Yugi and Atemu ran upstairs, followed closely by Velma after Frank and Darien urged her to find out what was wrong with Seto instead of staying behind to help them. They'd be fine, Frank assured her, but Seto might not be. Velma grabbed her broom as she reached the second floor landing.

"Kaiba?" Yugi called frantically as he ran down a long corridor. There was no reply at first and the boy's imagination started to run wild, even making him begin to fear the worst until he finally heard an answering grunt to his cries. He tried to calculate where it was coming from and at last traced it to the library. When he went in, he could see nothing but silhouettes and shapes in the dimmed light. "Kaiba?" he called once more, advancing into the darkness and squinting as he tried to make out where the young businessman was.

An unintelligible mutter came from his left and he turned in that direction, only to find Seto sprawled on the floor and clutching his left arm in obvious discomfort. Blood was seeping between the boy's fingers and onto the floor and the window nearby was wide open, the curtains swirling about in the breeze. Yugi could easily figure out the basics of what must have happened.

"You're hurt!" he exclaimed in alarm, his violet eyes widening. "Where's the first aid kit?"

Seto grunted. "There's one down the hall in the bathroom," he replied, "but I can get it myself." Slowly he got to his feet, continuing to clutch at his wounded limb. "You know, I've lost track of all the times this arm has been injured," he remarked sarcastically, feeling more than a little annoyed-and confused.

_What on earth had happened to all of his security? _One of the ninjas had definitely still been in the house. He had remained there long enough to stab Seto when the boy had realized that someone had been in the library, then had fled out the window. Seto wondered if the ninja had just been lying in wait or if he had been looking for something. He was leaning toward the latter of the two explanations. But if that was true, what could the ninja have wanted?

Yugi watched with concern as Seto somehow shut the window with his left hand, wincing as he did so, and then walked into the bathroom to retrieve the first aid kit. "Are you sure you're okay, Kaiba?" the short boy demanded. "Maybe I should call a doctor." He tried not to get dizzy as he watched Seto unbutton his shirt and remove it, revealing the wound in its entirety. It didn't look too deep, Yugi hoped, but still-there was so much blood. . . .

Seto grunted, gingerly rubbing an antiseptic pad over it. "I'm fine, Yugi," he grumbled. "You don't need to call any doctor." He had been hurt far worse in the past. One small arm wound wasn't enough, he didn't think, to warrant calling in a doctor. Seto didn't like to bother with them if he didn't have to.

"Seto! SETO!"

Both boys whirled around as Mokuba came running over, with Atemu and Velma following the child closely. Mokuba's blue-gray eyes were no longer sleepy, but shined with alertness and fear. He hurried up to his brother, sizing up the approximate situation easily, and frowned as he determined that Seto had been keeping something from him.

"Seto, what happened?" he demanded, watching as Seto fumbled with attempting to wrap the bandage around the injured part of his arm. Finally Mokuba shook his head and climbed up onto the counter so he could reach over and do it for Seto. The older boy sighed, but allowed him to take care of it.

"Apparently security is lax tonight," Seto replied, his blue eyes narrowing.

Velma twisted the broom handle around in her hands. "Mr. Kaiba, Frank and Darien were both hurt!" she told him urgently after making certain that he really wasn't hurt seriously. Seto immediately looked at her for further explanations and the maid tried to tell him what the two guards had said, though she hesitated when she came to the part about someone Seto knew having committed suicide.

"I can't imagine who they meant," she said apologetically.

Mokuba turned to look at her with wide, confused eyes as he finished with the bandaging. "I can't either," he said, and gazed up at Seto.

Seto frowned deeply, finding that even he was confused. "I don't know of any acquaintance living in the city who might have killed himself," he mused. _All I know is that something is very wrong. Gozaburo couldn't just materialize out of thin air after all this time unless something big is going on._ Idly he wondered if it could have anything to do with either Del Vinci or with the electrical malfunction at KaibaCorp, but then he dismissed the idea. It was all absurd.

* * *

Ishizu smiled gently as she felt Marik slumping against her. The poor boy was so tired that he just couldn't stay awake any longer. Carefully his elder sister covered him with a nearby fleece throw, holding his teenage body close and listening to the sound of his quiet breathing. Marik snuggled closer to her, mumbling softly as he buried his face against the folds of her nightgown.

Ishizu leaned back against the couch, pondering again over her strange vision. None of it made any sense to her, only that it sounded as though they were in for a lot more trouble in the remaining days before Christmas. "So very odd," she whispered almost indiscernibly. The image of the young man laying dead in the snow still haunted her. He had looked only three or four years older than Marik-perhaps Ishizu's age. That was too young to die. And what circumstances would have led to him shooting himself?

Or was that even what had happened? Now that Ishizu thought about it, it had looked as though the body had been brutalized. Horror filled her eyes and heart as it occurred to her that maybe someone had purposely tortured the man and then tried to make it look like he had killed himself.

"Who are you?" she pondered quietly. "What role do you have to play in our lives?"

"What role does who have?"

Ishizu looked up at Rishid's calm voice. The man smiled gently as he looked at his two younger siblings on the couch-Marik curled up asleep and wrapped in the throw while Ishizu held him tenderly. Quietly Rishid walked around and sat on Ishizu's other side, not wanting to wake Marik up when he so badly needed to sleep. And Ishizu told him about her vision while he listened grimly.

"I am not certain what to make of it," the Egyptian woman finished with a sigh. Marik stirred, but only to burrow deeper into the warmness of the fleece.

"Neither am I," Rishid said, shaking his head. "It sounds ominous."

"I wish I could decipher the meaning of the motorcycles and of that young man in the snow." Ishizu frowned, glancing out the glass patio doors idly and seeing the wide expanse of their backyard stretching before her.

"Most likely we will find out soon," Rishid assured her, just as the electricity flickered. Naturally his first assumption was that this was a result of the storm, but he was quite mistaken. Runihura the Destroyer was at work again.

* * *

Téa and Bakura were still trudging through the snow, trying to figure out where Oreo could have possibly gone, when the roar of a motorbike made them both look up. The snow coating the roads spurted up on either side as the driver expertly maneuvered through the powder and came to a stop right in front of the two teens. To their shock, Oreo was perched quite contentedly on his lap.

"Oreo!" Bakura cried in disbelief, running forward. Téa followed after him in confusion.

But she was even more confused when the biker removed his helmet and blinked up at them both. "Is she your cat?" he asked, watching as Bakura lifted Oreo up. The cat purred, putting her paws on the boy's shoulder.

"Oh yes!" Bakura exclaimed with a smile, profusely thanking him for finding her. "I just don't know what could have possessed her to run off like that."

The young man laughed softly. "That's a cat for you," he said.

Téa just stopped and stared. "You're Valon!" she burst out in astonishment. She remembered Valon from their experience with the Doom organization. He had been the one with a crush on Mai Valentine, resulting in several clashes with Joey. After Yugi had defeated Dartz, they had lost track of what had happened to Valon and the other two bikers who were his friends-or at least, his associates.

Valon looked at her, startled to be recognized, and then seemed to remember her as well. "And you're Téa, one of Yugi's chums, isn't it?"

Téa nodded, still baffled as to how all of this could have come about. "What are you doing back in Domino?" she asked. Bakura looked at her in confusion, seeing that she knew this person and wondering how she did. Oreo couldn't seem to care less how Valon was known. She just continued to purr, hopping inside Bakura's shirt for warmth and then peeking out through the space between the buttons.

Valon leaned on his motorcycle's handlebars. "I've been living here for a while now," he replied, "with the other two. We've been keepin' kind of a low profile." Oh, not that any of them had anything to fear from the law or anything like that. They had all been living on the up-and-up ever since they had met up again after Doom was disbanded. But none of them had felt especially close to Yugi and the others and hadn't really seen any reason to let them know that they were back in town.

Now Valon straightened up again, preparing to drive off. "I'd like to stay and chat," he said hurriedly, though the truth of that was debatable, "but I have to be going. I got word that Raphael found Alister laying in an alley, practically having kicked the bucket." Without bothering to explain anything further, he put his helmet on again and sped off, snow swirling around him.

Téa stared after him, even more confused than ever. She didn't bother to call for him to wait, as she knew it wouldn't do any good.

"Who is he, Téa?" Bakura spoke up then, drawing her out of her reverie. He walked over to her, holding Oreo again and stroking the cat's silky fur. Since he had not been them during their misadventures with Doom, he had no idea who any of the former members of that organization were. But Valon had seemed nice enough, though a bit rushed.

Téa sighed. "It's a long story," she replied.

It was then they heard the horrible sounds of a car crash coming from the next block over. As they ran to see what had happened, they were stunned to find that all of the lights at the intersection were out. Two cars had smashed into each other right in the middle of the street, the drivers most likely not having seen each other due to the heavy snowstorm and also due to the lights having gone out.

"Wait a minute!" Bakura cried in shock, recognizing the car that was a light turquoise shade. "That's Duke's car!"

* * *

Yami Bakura, dozing in the window seat back at Bakura's house, in Bakura's room, awoke in the middle of the night to find his stab wound paining him. Muttering curses to himself, the thief sat up and looked around the darkened room, which was lighted only from outside.

"Bakura?" he growled, looking over at the bed and only cursing more when he saw the covers rumpled and pulled back to reveal no young boy sleeping soundly against the soft pillow and mattress. Perhaps he would have only thought Bakura had gotten up for a drink of water, if it hadn't been that this was the third time he had roused up tonight and found the boy missing. An hour had passed during those three times. Bakura was obviously not in the house and Yami Bakura was obviously in no condition to go searching. It was a frustrating dilemma.

He could hear Mr. Ryou wandering around downstairs, humming some foolish love song to himself. If the man happened to come up and find that his son wasn't in bed, that would only put Yami Bakura in a worse mood for certain, since Mr. Ryou would be likely to blame Yami Bakura for his son's disappearance. The tomb robber didn't like Mr. Ryou much at all, especially not since Frances had entered the picture and turned all of their lives upsidedown.

So Yami Bakura did the only thing he felt he could do under the circumstances-he bunched up some of the covers and then threw the comforter quilt over them all, to make it look like Bakura was sleeping there. Then he stumbled back to the window seat and laid down, deciding that if the boy wasn't back the next time he awoke, he would have to brave the "evil" snow and go searching. He didn't much like that prospect either.

_

* * *

_

_He still felt the pain. It had dulled, but it was still there. It was irritating him. He wished it would just stop so he could rest in peace. Then maybe he wouldn't keep having these nightmares. It was bad enough to have experienced everything once without having it be repeated once, twice, even three times or more. He was tired of seeing Del Vinci's cruel grin, tired of feeling the prick of the weapons boring into his slender body, tired of not being able to wake up from this state of confusion and misery. He knew he had to._

_This time there seemed to be almost an urgency about it, however-as if, if he didn't manage to bring himself to consciousness, he would still die. He concentrated, trying to single out any one thing that he could focus on-a sound, a voice, a feeling-anything. When he wasn't enduring another too-real memory of what Del Vinci had done, his spirit was suspended in some area of swirling darkness from which he couldn't seem to escape. But in that dimension, he was able to hear things that were occurring in the real world._

_For instance, he could hear a strange, incessant beeping. He frowned, wondering if he could concentrate on that long enough to pull himself out of his current state. Anytime he began concentrating on any certain thing, Del Vinci would interrupt and bother him with another replay of the torment. But this time he was determined not to let it happen. He closed his eyes, focusing on the sound until it was the only thing he was hearing. It seemed to be slowing somehow and growing less frequent. But that only made him more stubborn about concentrating on it._

The moment it stopped completely was the same moment his eyes snapped open. He looked around as his vision started to focus, baffled, and then spotted a familiar blonde man staring down at him in astonishment. It took a moment to register, but then he recognized the man as being Raphael, his friend.

"Alister," he muttered, shaking his head in disbelief, "you're alive. . . ."

Alister blinked at him, still trying to determine what had happened exactly. "It looks that way, doesn't it," he replied, his voice coming out extremely raspy. Frowning, he decided not to attempt talking again for a while. Now that he had managed to return to the conscious world, questions started filling his mind. How had Raphael found him? How was he even alive at all, when Del Vinci's men had been supposed to have killed him?

Raphael looked almost spooked, and for Raphael, that was very unusual. He straightened up, though he was still looking down and studying the other young man. "Your heart stopped," he said finally after a long moment of silence. "That was when you opened your eyes-when your heart stopped."

Alister just stared at him, not comprehending at first. Then he realized he once again heard the steady beeping sound. It was the heart monitor. Feeling slightly spooked himself, he at last made another attempt to speak.

"Oh. . . ."

Raphael sighed and then sat down next to the bed, relief showing in his eyes. "Never mind," he said then. _I'm just grateful you're back. _He thought of how he had found Alister only a few hours before-though it seemed an eternity. He had thought that the red-haired young man was dead then. Alister had surprised him then and now had surprised him again. It looked as though he still had a lot of life left in him.


	5. Runihura Strikes Again

_**Author's Note: I am so ticked off! I uploaded this on Friday and ever since, has been vehemently denying its existence! Finally I decided I would just have to try again. Let's see what happens this time.**_

* * *

Seth looked up as Khu walked through the door of the Game Shop. Yes, they had actually been staying with the Pharaoh, his descendant, and the descendant's grandfather. Not that Khu was extremely pleased (he had been hostile about the whole thing, in fact), but it was either that or stay with the thief Bakaré. And the only one who seemed willing to have them stay there had been the tomb robber's descendant Bakura. And so, grudgingly, Khu had accepted the Pharaoh's invitation. Seth admittedly wondered if Khu had ulterior motives in mind, though he hated to think such things. But with his unpredictable brother, it was hard to know.

_Heh. . . . Who am I calling unpredictable? I was possessed by my insane father off and on for millennia and did things I never would have dreamed of had I been in control of myself. I've been just as unpredictable-or worse so-than Khu. I'm still amazed that Pharaoh Atemu, let alone Yugi, his descendant-could ever accept me and allow me to stay here, if only for a short time!_

"Khu?" the younger of the two brothers finally called out.

Khu turned to look at him, snow dotting his hair and clothes-which, incidentally, were still definitely not appropriate for the winter weather. "I found something interesting," he said abruptly without giving a greeting of some kind. He brushed the snow out of his raven locks and looked around the dim room that was Solomon Muto's quaint store for cards and various trinkets. What Seth was doing down here mystified him, but it really didn't matter that much. He advanced into the room, setting the piece of paper on the top of the glass case Seth was leaning on.

The blue-eyed young man looked at it, blinking in confusion. "Well, what is it?" he demanded. He could see that it was covered in hieroglyphs, but not like anything he'd ever seen before. "And where did you get it?"

"Some fool dropped it," Khu retorted, pulling the band away from his ponytail and letting his hair fall free onto his shoulders. He rarely did this, as having his hair flopping all around his face irritated him, but he wanted to be certain that he got all traces of snowflakes removed. "He didn't do me a good turn, so I decided not to do one for him." Khu's decision would prove valuable later on, though at the moment it only sounded like "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," which was a philosophy Khu often believed in.

Seth frowned a bit at his elder brother's attitude and then studied the scrap more closely. "Do you think it's important somehow?" he wondered. With a bit of time, he thought he would be able to crack the code-if necessary.

"It's possible," Khu nodded. Then he paused, knowing Seth might not appreciate what he was going to say next. He started idly twirling an invisible circle on the glass with his finger as he resumed speaking. "The person was fleeing from the Kaiba Manor. In a way, he looked familiar . . . as if . . . as if he might have been one of your-Akunadin's-lackeys." He hadn't realized this until later, as he was trudging back to the Game Shop, but then it had occurred to him with full force. And though he was being vague with Seth, the truth was that he absolutely knew the man was familiar. He definitely had seen him around Seth a while back.

Seth growled softly, definitely not pleased. Akunadin's devious ways were not dead in Domino City. Many of the minions were most likely still roaming about. And then there was that Del Vinci character, whoever he was. "I don't suppose you have a name to go with him," he said.

Khu shook his head. "I never paid much attention to their names," he replied, taking hold of the paper again. "But I'm more interested in deciphering this." He headed for the stairs leading up to the residential part of the building. "Come if you want to."

With a sigh, Seth followed. Khu was still the same as ever.

* * *

Bakura reached the turquoise car first while Téa went to check on those in the other vehicle. Finding the door unlocked, the British boy threw it open. (Due to the winter weather, Duke had opted to put the roof up on his convertible.) Duke was slumped over the steering wheel, dazed, but wearing a seatbelt. Bakura bit his lip, surveying the scene, and then gripped at Duke's shoulder as he quietly called to him, trying to determine if he was conscious or aware. 

He didn't get a response at first. But then Duke started and stirred, opening an emerald eye to look up at the other boy. "What happened?" he mumbled, trying to pull himself up but feeling too disoriented to do so. He didn't remember the cars crashing into each other-only the jolt that had thrown him forward and that could have sent him out the windshield.

"You were in an accident," Bakura said kindly. "It might be better not to move around too much right now. . . ."

Duke ignored him, pushing himself back against the seat and rubbing at his right temple, which he had struck against the steering wheel. "An accident?" he repeated, his voice dark as a sneaking suspicion began to form. _I get into a car wreck the day after a police officer goes psycho and tries to kill me. Coincidence? I don't think so._

"That's right," Bakura nodded, glancing back as he saw Téa running over. "Téa was just checking on the people in the other car," he said now, but then was stunned at her announcement. Duke, however, was not.

"There's no one in that car!" Téa cried, pointing back to it. "The brake wasn't set and it must have rolled over into Duke's car!" She came over closer and looked in, seeing that Duke was conscious and seemed well enough. _Well, that's one good thing. The last thing we need right now is someone else getting hurt!_ The mystery they had been dealing with was actually quite massive, stemming back to a case they'd had the previous month. Téa just wanted it all to be over. She wanted all the members of the drug gang to be caught. She wanted Del Vinci to finally get arrested so that he couldn't cause any more trouble for the Kaibas. And she wanted the missing people to be found-alive.

Duke glanced over at the other vehicle briefly and then frowned, brushing his dark bangs away from his face. "Or it was pushed," he remarked, and he was certain this was the truth. It was another deliberate attempt on his life. It had to be. That only made sense.

Téa gasped. "Oh no," she murmured, also realizing that it was likely.

Duke started climbing out of the car. "And if it was pushed," he reasoned, swaying slightly before catching himself on the edge of the car's roof, "then maybe whoever did it is still in the area." He looked around, highly alert, but could see no one other than his two friends and could hear nothing other than the howl of the blizzard's winds. Of course, whoever was responsible was probably hiding. Or else they high-tailed it as soon as the cars slammed into each other, falsely assuming that Duke would be killed instantly. As it was, he was barely hurt at all-just angry.

"We should report this to the police!" Bakura cried firmly, discomfort obvious in his eyes. He tried to get Duke to sit down again, but in vain. The dice master was having none of it.

And he didn't care for Bakura's other idea very much, either. "Right now, I'm not so sure which of the officers can be trusted," he growled. "I know a while ago I'd composed a list of everyone in the city who was involved in this drug gang, but I think I missed a few names." This was obviously in reference to Gabrielle and her actions of the day before. There wasn't really any way she could have done what she had and not be involved in something crooked . . . unless she hadn't been in control of herself.

"Well, if we're not going to call the police just yet, what are we going to do?" Téa demanded, placing her hands on her hips.

A gunshot went off and a bullet came flying right at her-Bakura only just managing to grab her and pull her down while Duke also dropped to the snow-covered ground. Two more rounds of gunfire erupted in rapid succession.

"I know what we should do," Duke muttered, reaching up to climb into his car. Though he would like to chase after whoever was doing this, it would be much too dangerous on foot, especially when they didn't know where the sniper was hiding. The car was their best chance. "Get in, now!"

"You don't have to tell me twice, mate!" Bakura exclaimed, herding Téa in and following closely. Just as Duke slammed the door shut, a fourth bullet ripped past and nearly shattered the window. With a growl the raven-haired boy was stepping on the accelerator and sending them flying down the road. Buckshot peppered the path behind them as the car sped around a corner.

"What are you going to do?!" Téa screamed, fumbling with the seatbelt. There was room for three people in both the front and the back of Duke's car, though usually only two rode in front. Right now, however, neither she or Bakura wanted to attempt climbing over the seat into the back.

"Are you even quite well enough to drive?" Bakura exclaimed, never having ridden with Duke before and not realizing that he normally drove with daring and recklessness. He managed to get his own seatbelt on only seconds before he would have gone flying forward as Duke speeded up incredibly.

"Just sit tight and don't question me!" Duke retorted, keeping an eye out for anything that looked odd. The culprit had to be on this block somewhere, perhaps hiding up in a tree or in a bush. It wasn't likely that they would be able to find the sniper, but that didn't mean Duke wasn't going to try.

Runihura, standing atop a telephone pole, watched all of this with amusement. "Let's see the three of you get out of this one," he grinned wildly, leaping into the air and sending electricity pulsing through several power lines, completely overloading their capacity. Already weakened by the snow that was piled on top of them, they plummeted downward-right into the car's path!

Téa let out a horrified scream. Bakura's eyes widened and he clenched his fists tightly as Oreo hid within his shirt again and yowled. Duke growled, struggling to swerve out of the way. He would have tried putting on the brakes, only there was another problem-there were no brakes.

"Whether we hit the power lines or not, we're in for it!" he yelled.

* * *

Raphael watched Alister with lingering concern, seeing that his friend seemed a bit confused and disoriented. But then, he supposed, that was normal enough when he'd just barely managed to survive whatever had happened to him. He shouldn't even be alive, Raphael knew, and yet he was. The harsh beating, the bullet to the heart, being left in the snow-none of it had managed to kill him.

He wondered if Alister would try talking to him again. The redhead had been silent for the last several minutes, though he had regarded the doctor with displeasure as he had been examined and poked and prodded. Raphael didn't blame him there. Neither of them really enjoyed being thoroughly investigated by some complete stranger who could very well be holding lives in his hands.

Alister sipped a cup of water slowly, taking in the room with only mild interest. It looked pretty much like any other hospital room and Alister had other things to think about. _He couldn't let Del Vinci go ahead with his latest scheme. . . ._ The crime boss was diabolical, more so than just about anyone else Alister had ever known. And Alister had had the displeasure of witnessing more than one of his foul acts during the brief time he had infiltrated into the gang. This new plan, however, was the most atrocious act yet. It would endanger the lives of many young children, something Alister had a serious problem with. Because of what had happened to his brother Miruko, Alister was quite sensitive about anything concerning children's well-being and safety.

He leaned back into the pillows, feeling weak. "How did you find me?" he asked, still in a rasping tone. He could see that he was badly wounded-to the point of death for most people-and that it was some sort of miracle that he was alive at all. But though subconsciously he remembered being left for dead in the snow, he had never been awake during that point in time and didn't recall it except in his dreams. For all he knew, he had still been at Del Vinci's hideout when he had been rescued.

Raphael had figured Alister would get around to wondering that. And he knew there was only one answer to his query. "I didn't find you," he said gruffly. "Your brother did." He wasn't sure if that would make sense to Alister or not, but he knew it was true. If Miruko hadn't appeared and led him into that alley, Raphael was positive that he wouldn't have found Alister in time. As it was, he had looked dead-only barely and not visibly clinging to life.

Alister's eyes widened. "Miruko," he whispered. Now that Raphael had mentioned it, something else began to surface from deep within his thoughts. He remembered hearing Miruko talking to him, though it had sounded vague and far away. His brother had encouraged him, telling him that he needed to stay alive and that it wasn't over for him yet. _"Your friends are looking for you, Alister!"_ the child had said. _"I'll make sure they find you. It isn't your time to die."_ And it seemed that Miruko had kept his promise.

"Do you think I've gone off the deep end?" Raphael asked dryly, knowing that for most people, if he said that their deceased brother had found them, they definitely would think he didn't have the sanest mind in the world.

But Alister shook his head. "No. . . . It makes sense," he responded, but didn't offer any more information than that. He had always been the most aloof of the three, though he had eventually began to trust the other two and consider them as friends.

"You're lucky to be alive," Raphael told him after another brief stretch of silence. "When your brother led me to where you were, you looked like you were already done for." The memory of discovering Alister laying apparently dead in the snow-at first, appearing as a victim of suicide-still disturbed Raphael. He had never seen someone he cared about as having died, as in the shipwreck many years before he had found none of his family's bodies.

Alister raised a hand to his forehead. "I doubt that was a pleasant sight," he muttered, trying to ward off an approaching headache. Bits and pieces of the torture that had been dealt to him flashed through his mind, as well as Del Vinci's cruel laughter. Traitors were not taken lightly.

Raphael shook his head. "It wasn't. They tried to make it look like you'd killed yourself, but that was a sloppy move on their part."

Alister frowned, though he had expected it. He had seen Del Vinci's gang kill others and then try to put the blame on the victims themselves. It made sense that they would try it with him as well, though with the obvious wounds from being tortured it didn't seem like the smartest thing they could have done.

"Where's Valon?" he asked finally, knowing that he hadn't seen the blue-eyed Australian around since he had woken up.

Raphael rolled his eyes, looking put out. "Who knows," he muttered. He looked down at his friend again. "Would you mind telling me how you wound up like this?"

Alister grunted. "It's a long story."

"I'm not going anywhere," Raphael shrugged.

* * *

Seto had just gotten Mokuba back to bed shortly before five A.M. and was just about to go to sleep again himself when he heard the sound of a helicopter outside, obviously flying around the property. 

"Now what?" he growled, definitely not appreciative of someone else deciding to blow in. And what if it was more of those ninjas, along with Gozaburo? It surely wasn't any of his security helicopters. It sounded like it was flying much too low for that.

Without another word to Yugi or the Pharaoh, Seto went out on the balcony and looked up, shielding his eyes, and tried to determine what was going on. His hair blew about, both from the blizzard and from the wind generated by the approaching helicopter. It was trying to land-that much was apparent.

"What's going on, Kaiba?!" Yugi exclaimed, joining him on the balcony.

"You tell me and then we'll both know," Seto retorted sarcastically.

In the next moment they found out. And Seto was not pleased.

"Yoohoo! Kaiba-boy!"

Seto's eyes narrowed in frustration, seeing Pegasus leaning out of the open door and waving. _What did he want?!_ "Oh great."


	6. Surprises

It wasn't long before the helicopter had landed on Seto's front lawn. Seto, Yugi, Atemu, Velma (brandishing her broom), and several dazed security guards were there to greet it. This was all very strange, not that everything else hadn't been. But why had Pegasus flown up from California? And, perhaps more importantly, how had he done so in such a short amount of time? It didn't make sense!

"Well, my my. This is quite a welcoming party," Pegasus smiled as he calmly walked out of the helicopter to stand in the snow. His two top lackeys, Croquet and Kimo, soon followed to stand on either side of him. Seto was not especially pleased by this.

"What are you doing here, Pegasus?" the young businessman demanded, stepping forward.

Pegasus looked at Seto with mock hurt. "Why, Kaiba-boy, it just isn't polite to hang up on people!" he scolded lightly. "And since even you don't hang up without good reason, I started to wonder if some horrible thing had happened! Naturally I thought it only good and right to come directly over!" He gestured with ease at the property. "And since I can see that you seem quite well, I must wonder what possessed you to drop the telephone during our little chat."

Seto growled low, ignoring the question. "How did you even get here? It isn't possible to travel up here from California that fast, even with a personal helicopter!" He watched Pegasus suspiciously, hoping desperately that he wasn't about to hear of some new hocus-pocus Pegasus had gotten hold of. "It was less than an hour ago when you called on the phone!"

"Hmm. I never said I was in California when I called," Pegasus replied smoothly.

"Then where were you?" Seto practically yelled in exasperation. It was so hard to get Pegasus to reveal anything. It was positively maddening! 

"Why, I was right here in the city, Kaiba-boy," Pegasus smiled. "Well, on the out-skirts." He took this opportunity to greet Yugi and Atemu and to tell Velma that he was certain she would be ready for anything as long as she kept wielding her broom.

"What were you doing in the city?" Seto persisted. This was only getting stranger. "Or do I want to know?"

"Tsk, tsk, Kaiba-boy, you never know when to stop asking questions, do you." Pegasus shook his head, looking disappointed. "And here I thought you'd be so glad to see me." It seemed that he hadn't changed much at all, if anything, since Seto had seen him last.

"Cut the theatrics!" Seto snapped, his temper wearing thin. "After what I've been through, I'm not in the mood to play your games."

"Oh, very well, very well," Pegasus replied, quite enjoying himself. It was so easy to get Seto upset. Whenever the two saw each other, Pegasus couldn't resist the chance to tease him a bit. "The truth is that I'm building a branch of Industrial Illusions right here in Domino City." He smiled. "I've already chosen where I want to build it. What's more, I've selected a quaint little cabin in the canyon that overlooks the city. That's where I was calling you from, Kaiba-boy—my cosy new office."

Seto's eyes narrowed in irritation. _This is all I need right now,_ he thought in frustration. Oh, not that he was worried about Pegasus usurping KaibaCorp. The two companies could co-exist quite naturally and peacefully. But if Pegasus was going to be spending a lot of his time in Domino from now on, that meant that he could be around a lot more of the time to torture and exasperate Seto. And that was something Seto wasn't looking forward to. He had enough troubles.

Both Yugi and Atemu were surprised at this news. It seemed strange, Atemu mused to himself, that this was happening at the same time as all of these other odd things. He didn't believe Pegasus was at fault, but maybe somehow he was still involved.

"I didn't know you were planning to build Industrial Illusions here, Pegasus," Yugi said with a confused blink.

Pegasus just smiled. "Of course not. I haven't gone public with the news yet." But at last he completely sobered, deciding that it was time to get to the heart of things. "Let's go inside," he directed. "I do have some disturbing matters to discuss with all three of you." He looked from Seto to Yugi to Atemu.

Seto growled. "Fine. Let's get it over with." He headed for the door, not bothering to see if the others were following.

They were, of course.

"What kinds of disturbing matters, Pegasus?" Yugi asked uneasily, looking up at the man who had once been his enemy.

"I daresay you'll quickly find out, Yugi-boy," Pegasus replied. Was it Yugi's imagination or did Pegasus actually look worried?

* * *

In desperation Duke continued to turn the steering wheel to the left, struggling to avoid the live wires just ahead of them. As the car roared past, it seemed that there was no more than a foot and a half between it and the deadly electricity. And their problems were hardly over. There was still the uncertainty of what would happen to them without the brakes. Maybe if Duke could find a really big snowdrift he could crash into that and hope that the car would then stop without causing any serious damage to anyone in or out of the vehicle.

"Is it safe to open my eyes yet?" Téa exclaimed shakily.

"Yeah, if you like seeing everything fly by at unnatural speeds," Duke retorted, barely avoiding a collision with a car backing out of its driveway. Téa let out a shriek.

Bakura was holding Oreo tightly—most likely too tight, as the cat was now starting to dig her claws into his flesh in panic. "Is there a reason why you're driving like this?!" he cried in alarm, his fluffy silver hair flying in all directions.

"One really good one—I have no choice!" Duke shot back, whipping around a corner. _A dangerous and stupid thing to do,_ he berated himself then. _I could have hit a car, if there'd been one here.__Or,_ he then added grimly, _I could hit that biker up ahead._ Quickly he rolled down the window, yelling that there were no brakes and for the motorcyclist to get out of the way.

Bakura, so distressed that he didn't realize Duke had even been doing this, exclaimed with a loud voice, warning him of the oncoming vehicle. "DUKE! You're going to smash right into that yellow motorcycle!" He couldn't look. He buried his face in Oreo's soft fur and waited for the impact that he was sure would come.

At the last possible second the motorcycle swerved out of the way, sending snow spraying all over the car. Duke thought he could vaguely hear an accented voice indignantly yelling for him to watch where he was going, but he had no time to pay attention. Up ahead was what looked like a hole in the road that had been dug out for construction. Duke had no time to either wonder when it had gotten there or to attempt driving around it before he felt themselves plunging into it. He shut his eyes tightly, bracing himself.

And then . . . it all stopped. In confusion the three teenagers opened their eyes and looked about. The car was only a few feet down. They soon realized that the pit had been almost entirely filled by hard, wet, packing snow. And now that they had sunk into it, their wild ride had finally been halted. Shakily Duke removed the key from the ignition and turned to inspect his two passengers. "Is everyone still in one piece?" he asked.

"Barely," Téa retorted. She glared at Duke with fire in her cerulean eyes. "What was that all about, Duke Devlin?!" she demanded. "Why didn't you stop?!"

Duke tossed the bangs back from the side of his face in frustration. "I told you—I didn't have a choice!" he snapped. "The brakes gave out. I was doing the best I could. And we're all still alive, right?"

Bakura ignored that. "The brakes gave out?!" he cried in horror. "But . . . but how?! When would anyone have had the time to tamper with them?!" Oreo yowled, finally releasing her deathgrip on the normally quiet boy, and hopped down to look at the brake pedal herself.

Duke leaned against the steering wheel. "It must've been right after they crashed that car into mine," he deduced slowly. "I was unconscious for a couple of minutes before you guys found me. Someone who knew what he was doing could have easily done some damage to the brakes during those minutes."

"They weren't taking any chances, were they," Téa said darkly, meaning that the assassins had had a backup plan incase Duke hadn't died in the collision. "And just how are we going to get out of here?" She looked up at the slippery, snow-covered edge with distaste. Oh, they could probably climb over that easily, but opening the car doors would be quite another problem.

"You might have to open the roof, Duke," Bakura suggested nervously when Téa wasn't able to get the door open enough in order to get out.

Duke looked irritated. He didn't really want snow to get into the car, but it didn't seem like there was much choice. "Alright," he agreed finally, deciding on a compromise. "I'll pull the top back just enough so that we can get out."

At that moment, a heavy clump of snow fell on the roof from a tree branch above that was sagging under the weight. The trio started at the sudden thumping noise before Duke realized what it was. With a groan he shook his head and slumped back in the seat. "We're going to get snowed on as soon as I try to open the roof," he announced. _Oh well,_ he smirked to himself, _ at least I'm not on a date. I'd probably get slapped as soon as the snow was neatly coated all through the girl's hair._

"Never mind that!" Téa cried. "Let's just get out before something else happens!" She knew she was going to be tired all day long. She was wide awake right now and knew she would never be able to sleep until she had more answers. Her eyes widened as she suddenly remembered that she was supposed to go help Mr. Thorton at the toy store. In all the confusion she had forgotten completely. And the store would be opening in a few hours by now.

So at last they were able to get out of the runaway car. As they looked around, surveying the damage and the area, trying to get their bearings, they saw several people emerging from their houses to watch them curiously. Téa and Bakura both found themselves getting embarrassed over the entire mess. What a scene they must have made!

"There's nothing to see here," Duke called to one man smoothly. "Just one tampered car in need of a tow."

"Not to mention three cold people who need a ride," Téa muttered.

* * *

Valon, in the meantime, was suddenly finding himself being cornered from all directions by a gang of thugs. He frowned, glaring daggers at them all as he removed his helmet and slowly climbed off his motorcycle. "What do you blokes want?" he demanded, not in the mood for trouble. But it seemed no one was exempt from getting into a lot of it, especially on this morning.

"You just showed up in the wrong place at the wrong time," one of them growled. Valon noticed that he was carrying a gun. Instantly he was on guard.

"Maybe if you'd gotten hit by that rampaging car, you would've redeemed yourself just a bit," a second one added, stepping over as well.

Valon didn't like the looks of this. He stood defensively, prepared to attack. "Now just what's that supposed to mean?" he demanded. "I don't generally try to get myself run over." He looked from one to the other darkly, his brunette bangs flopping into his blue eyes.

"Well, maybe if you had, the people in the car would be dead!" the second person hissed. "Now we'll have to go to a lot more trouble to accomplish it."

"Look, I'm not in the mood for this right now," Valon said in a low tone, his eyes flashing dangerously. "I've got a chum in the hospital who might be dying. So if you wanna fight me, let's make it quick."

"Fine with me," came the reply. "It's your funeral."

None of them imagined that such a short, harmless-looking young man could pack such a punch. But Valon had done plenty of fighting in his young life and this wasn't all that much of a challenge. The snow flew around them, both from the sky and being kicked up from the road, as they struggled and grappled. But in the end Valon was the victor, with the gang members all sprawled on the ground in varying states of dazedness and confusion.

He stood over them coldly, shaking his head. "I warned you," he said before climbing back on his motorcycle and pondering over this oddness. What could it all mean? Why did this gang want the people in the car to die? Who were the people?

_Wait. . . . That car had looked strangely familiar. . . ._

Valon frowned. He remembered that car. It belonged to one of Yugi's friends. "Well, it looks like they still can't stay out of trouble," he muttered to himself . Not that he and his friends were having any better luck. What had happened to Alister was proof of that. _Wouldn't it be odd,_ Valon mused as he rode off down the street, _if it was all connected in some weird way?_

* * *

Khu slammed his hand on the table in irritation, letting out a loud curse. "It's not working!" he yelled, looking at the page of failed translations of the odd paper. "None of the common ways of deciphering codes is working here. It's almost as if whoever wrote this devised an entirely new method of encoding!" He and Seth had now been working on this for almost an hour. And still they were no closer to finding answers. By now Khu's hair was a complete mess, the ponytail band forgotten amidst the problems of the code.

Seth frowned, also frustrated by everything, and picked up the original paper. "This message must be serious to have been put under such precautions," he growled. As he studied the paper, trying desperately to figure out some sort of pattern that made sense, his blue eyes widened. _What was this?_ _It looked almost as if . . . as if some of the characters were possibly upsidedown or backwards versions of other characters they had managed to decipher, instead of being entirely different characters altogether!_ "Khu!" he exclaimed excitedly. "I think I have a clue!"

"At least someone has," Khu retorted.

As Khu listened, Seth explained what he had figured out. Then another brainstorm occurred to him. "And the characters that are backwards and upsidedown here look like the ones we determined meant 'B,' 'P,' and 'M'! The upsidedown one could be 'W.' And maybe some of the backwards ones could be lowercase 'd's and 'q's, even."

Khu grunted. "What would there be to say in the message that would require the letter 'Q'?" he wondered, not in a very good mood after all the failed attempts.

"Let's just try it and see what happens!" Seth insisted.

Khu shrugged. "What do we have to lose." He picked up the pen.

* * *

Back at the Kaiba Manor, Pegasus was just getting ready to tell the others about whatever was concerning him when the phone rang. Seto frowned, glaring at the instrument as Velma scurried to answer it. It wasn't normal for the phone to ring so much at this time of the morning. What could be happening now?

Velma seemed confused. "Mr. Kaiba, sir, I dunno who's on the phone," she said, coming over to them, "but he wants to talk to you."

Seto rolled his eyes. "This will just be a minute," he muttered to the others, standing and going over to the telephone. As he picked up the receiver and listened to what the other person had to say, his eyes suddenly widened and then narrowed darkly.

Yugi sighed. "It looks like it's more bad news, Yami," he remarked, leaning forward and staring at the floor. Yami Yugi concurred, continuing to watch Seto as the person apparently hung up on him and as Seto continued to yell for a response.

At last the young businessman turned again to face the others. "It seems," he said, seeing their questioning expressions and being too irritated with everything to keep the message secret (especially since the others would probably only find out anyway), "that someone else is angry at me."

"Who, Kaiba?!" Yugi asked, looking up again.

"That's a good question," Seto said dryly. "All I know is that they said I have Alister at my infirmary and that I'm going to pay dearly for keeping him alive." _One thing after another.And wait . . . they'd said "Alister." What on earth was he doing here?!_

What made it all even stranger was Pegasus's reaction.

"He's at your infirmary, Kaiba-boy?!" he exclaimed. "And he's alive?! But that's impossible!" He rose, looking completely stunned of his mind.


	7. Crazy or Not?

Instantly all eyes were on Pegasus, demanding an explanation for his outburst. Seto, especially, was indignant and confused.

"Why is it so impossible, Pegasus?" he snapped. "Do you have a good reason why he shouldn't be alive?" Not that he was quite about to suggest that Pegasus might have had something to do with Alister apparently having nearly died (okay, actually he was about to suggest that), but on this strange week he was ready to believe almost anything. Pegasus resorting back to his crooked ways didn't seem like that big of a stretch.

This time Pegasus was not in the mood to make obnoxious retorts. "Yes, Kaiba-boy, I have a very good reason," he said firmly, "and it all ties in with what I came here to talk with you about." He looked at Seto seriously with his amber eye before slowly sitting down again. "I'd best not delay any longer with the news."

"Well, what on earth is the news, Pegasus?!" Yugi cried, bowled over by everything that he had seen and heard in the last hour and a half. He could see that the Pharaoh felt the same.

Pegasus sighed, leaning forward on the couch. "Well," he began, "it all started a couple of weeks ago when I realized that some of my company's secrets and plans for new products were being sold to the Mafia don Del Vinci. I knew nothing good would come of that, so I endeavored to find out exactly who had done it so they could be properly disciplined. That's when I discovered that someone was also giving Del Vinci information from your company, Kaiba-boy!" He looked at Seto as he said this.

Seto's eyes narrowed angrily and his first thought was, _Could it have been Noa?_ He still didn't trust his step-brother at all and wouldn't put it past him to sneak into the database, retrieve top secret information, and proudly deliver it to Del Vinci. Of course, that could put Mokuba in danger too, provided that Noa would even care about that. Seto couldn't decide whether he would or not, though he doubted it. Or maybe it had been the employees who had since vanished who had done it?

This seemed to be Pegasus's theory. "I finally did track down the person who did this despicable act," he said, "but he disappeared before I could confront him! And two other employees disappeared right along with him." He balanced his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands. "And Del Vinci, who was supposed to have retreated down to Hawaii or somewhere around there, has vanished as well."

"Do you think he's back here in Domino?" Yugi asked, his violet eyes wide with worry.

"It's quite possible, I'm afraid," Pegasus admitted, "though I can't imagine why he'd be foolish enough to come back."

"Where does Alister fit into all of this?" Yami Yugi spoke up. He had been silent for some time now, just taking everything in and trying to sort it out in his own mind. It all sounded very strange and he couldn't understand how the former Doom soldier was a part of it all, especially since he had been supposed to have let go of his vengeful feelings for Seto Kaiba. _It wasn't possible that he had been the one giving KaibaCorp secrets out, was it?_

"I was just coming to that," Pegasus replied. "Just yesterday morning a very disturbing video tape was delivered to my office in San Francisco. I viewed it at my cabin this past evening." He looked seriously at each person sitting around him. "It was quite graphic, showing nothing for fifteen agonizing minutes except the torture of this person Alister. At last he fell still and didn't move and a voice came on in the background, intoning darkly that if I and Seto Kaiba didn't leave well enough alone, we would both be tortured to our deaths as well." Reaching into the pocket of his infamous red jacket, he withdrew an ominous video tape void of any labeling. "It ended with a convincing shot of Alister laying on the slab, looking quite believably dead."

Yugi recoiled in horror, gazing at the tape in Pegasus's hand. He had to hope that the man wasn't planning for them to watch it. He wasn't sure he could handle viewing what Pegasus had just described. Frankly, he didn't think even the stoic Seto Kaiba would be able to watch the torment of another human being without wincing and feeling squeamish.

Seto frowned deeply, his arms crossed. "That doesn't explain why Alister was being tortured or why he's in my infirmary," he remarked.

"No, but I assume he was poking his nose where it didn't belong," Pegasus returned. "People such as Del Vinci don't tend to reward any kind of espionage against them."

"Well, we need to find out how Alister's doing and if he's going to be okay!" Yugi exclaimed now, looking at Seto pleadingly and hoping that the young businessman was going to call the infirmary and find out. From Seto's expression, he looked like he was about to, for reasons of his own.

But instead he stood up. "I intend to find out all of that and much more," he retorted. He needed to go down to KaibaCorp anyway and see what damage had been done to everything due to the mini-explosions. Now he had another reason to go there as well.

"We'll come with you," Yugi said in determination, standing as well.

Seto shrugged boredly, not in the mood to argue. "Knock yourself out," was his only answer.

**&&&& **

As Téa finally walked into Mr. Thorton's store after first waiting for Duke's car to get pulled out of the pit and towed and then riding the bus with him and Bakura, she noticed that the plastic candy canes set up at the entrance were all sprawled on the floor like dominos. She blinked in surprise, quickly righting them before venturing further in. "Mr. Thorton?" she called, looking around for him. _Everything looked so deserted._

"He went across the mall to the magic store and said something about getting new rubber stress balls and a lucky rabbit's foot," a vaguely familiar voice said from behind her. "Somehow, I have the feeling he didn't get them soon enough." This part was said in sarcasm.

Téa whirled around and stared at the boy who had spoken. "Rex Raptor?!" she said in disbelief.

"Yeah, yeah," Rex growled low, looking ruffled. In fact, as Téa looked around, she realized the whole store looked ruffled. Now she had to wonder if all the candy canes having fallen down was just an accident.

"What are you doing here?" Téa demanded. "And how do you know where Mr. Thorton went?"

Rex shrugged. "I'm working for him now," he replied. Noticing another fallen display, he resumed his muttering and went over to fix it.

"Since when? And what happened in here?!" Téa gestured around at the disaster before going to correct an electric train that was going quite contentedly across the floor instead of around its track. "It looks like a cyclone hit!"

"It did!" Rex said hotly. "Two of 'em." Then he explained quickly about the strange men who had entered just before Téa had. They had demanded to see Mr. Thorton, and when Rex had said that he wasn't there, they had retaliated by trashing the store—after giving Rex quite a knockout punch. He left that part out when he told Téa about the break-in.

Téa raised an eyebrow. "And just where were you while this was going on?" she asked, having an idea of what he was keeping from her. If Rex had been indisposed, for whatever reason, of course he wouldn't want to reveal that information.

Now Rex started to stammer about, eventually even taking off his hat and twisting it nervously in his hands. Téa just shook her head, not sure whether to be amused or frustrated, when a strong arm wrapped around her from behind. She gasped in alarm and Rex looked up again. _The men hadn't left!_

**&&&& **

Solomon rubbed his eyes sleepily as he came into the living room and found Yugi's strange guests sitting around the coffee table, papers strung all around them. He still wasn't sure who these two were. When Yugi had explained it, he had caught something about them having both been members of the Pharaoh's court and how the younger one had been possessed by his insane father, and oh yes, how he had tried to have the dead summoned by some woman, but beyond that Solomon wasn't really that sure of anything about them.

"Is Yugi in bed?" he asked after greeting them with Good Morning.

"He left with the Pharaoh a while ago," Seth told him. "He said he was going to see Kaiba about something." He looked back down at the code and frowned. It still didn't look right. . . .

Khu didn't think so either. Finally losing his temper, he let out an ear-piercing scream that made Seth wince and be grateful that Solomon hadn't still been sleeping. Then the former zealot grabbed up the paper indignantly and read off the preposterous translation.

"'Dring the others anb make sure that the taffy is storeb qroqerly in the fribge.'"

Seth frowned, grabbing up the page of hieroglyphs again. "Khu, I think it's been upsidedown all this time," he said meekly, knowing only too well what his brother's response was going to be. When Khu was angry like this, it was almost comical—unless, of course, you were the one standing right next to him.

Solomon watched in disbelief as Khu ran his hands through his hair, messing it up even more, and screamed his lungs out. "This man was an advisor to the Pharaoh?" Solomon murmured, shaking his head.

"It must be worse than that!" Khu said indignantly in response to Seth. "We must have the entire translation wrong! Why would hardened criminals be discussing _taffy?!_"

"Well, we never knew it was hardened criminals to begin with," Seth said slowly.

Khu rolled his eyes, snatching the paper of hieroglyphs from Seth's hand. "Let's start over _again_," he said in disgust.

**&&&&**

Raphael frowned, watching Alister dozing off. What his friend had told him was alarming and sickening. During the time when he had infiltrated into Del Vinci's gang, Alister had discovered that many of the members had younger brothers and sisters or even children. To force the more reluctant lackeys to keep working for him, the crime boss had gone about abducting all of the children and was threatening to harm them dearly if anyone tried to quit. According to Alister, some of the children had already been hurt.

"_How did they find out you weren't really one of them?" _Raphael had asked then, assuming it was because Alister had balked at kidnapping or at tormenting such young lives. Alister wouldn't be able to do that no matter what the stakes were. Children were too precious to him.

Alister had gazed up at the ceiling as he answered._ "They knew I didn't want to go along with it," _he had began, _"and one night I happened to be with the minions who were dispatched to take some more kids. I turned around and punched the leader in the face to give the children a chance to get away. I had the information I'd originally infiltrated to get and I was planning to get away too. That didn't happen. In order for the kids to escape, I had to let myself get caught. The way it went, it came down to being either me or them. After what I'd just done and they realized what the truth must be, they wanted me badly."_ His expression had never changed as he had told this. Valon sometimes had thought that Alister would make the perfect soldier on a dangerous mission due largely to his often emotionless behavior and aloof personality—which was the opposite of Valon's own open, emotion-revealing nature. But underneath it all, Raphael knew Alister had emotions—plenty of them. Plus, he hated weapons, though he did know how to operate them.

"_But who would be around to help the children if you'd wound up being killed?"_ Raphael had demanded then. Not that he blamed Alister for what he'd done. After having known the redhead for as long as he had, Raphael was certain that he never could have done anything else in the situation.

"_I wasn't killed,"_ had been Alister's only response. And actually, being the clever person he is, he had come up with a backup plan, knowing that he couldn't participate in the abduction and that his deception would then most likely be discovered. He had given the fleeing children a sealed manilla envelope and had told them to call the police, tell them what had happened, and to give them that envelope. (He hadn't been seen doing that, as he had been alone with the children at the time.) The oldest of the children, who had looked about eight, was a responsible sort and had vowed that he would do just that. Inside the envelope Alister had gathered up pictures and information displaying exactly what Del Vinci's monstrous plans were and how they were being carried out. If the child had done as promised and taken the envelope to the police, then the officers already knew about Del Vinci's atrocities.

Raphael sighed, shaking his head. It was amazing, the way they kept getting into trouble.

The door opened slowly and he instantly looked up, narrowing his eyes as a ragged-looking Valon entered. _One more problem to add to the list—what on earth had happened to him now?!_ "It's about time you got here," Raphael said flatly, eyeing the Australian to see if he looked badly hurt. He was sporting various mild bruises and cuts, and the skin around his left eye looked red, but otherwise he seemed alright.

Valon sighed, collapsing in a chair on the other side of the bed. "You wouldn't believe the night I've had, chum," he remarked, looking over at Alister now. "The nurse said he's probably going to make it. That's true, isn't it?" He leaned on the bed railing, watching the supposedly sleeping Alister. The two of them were often at odds with each other and Valon had sometimes said that he didn't like Alister, but that was usually only when he was angry during one of their fights. He actually did like Alister, though he didn't understand him, and he considered the older man to be his friend.

Alister opened one eye wearily, looking at him. "It's true," he said.

Valon started momentarily, not having realized that Alister had been conscious all this time.

Raphael ignored this. "What happened to you?" he demanded of Valon.

"I got into a fight with a gang of thugs," Valon replied, recovering and leaning on the railing again. "Then another gang cornered me when I finally got here. I dunno . . . I got the feeling that we're probably not safe here." He frowned. "The second gang accused me of knowing a traitor to the Del Vinci empire, whatever that is."

Alister shut his eyes tightly in frustration. "And that is exactly why I didn't want the two of you to get involved," he muttered. This was his problem and he would deal with it. At least, that was what he had told himself earlier, when the mess was first starting. But now he knew the others were both already involved—guilty by association. Del Vinci's men would be after him again, and if they realized that Alister actually had friends, Raphael and Valon would both be on their hit list.

**&&&&**

Marik growled as the snow began to increase. He was riding his motorcycle down a freshly plowed street, going to the store to get a few things that Ishizu had wanted. (She hadn't wanted him to go out in the snow, but he had insisted, saying it wouldn't take long.) The large flakes drifted down on his helmet, goggles, and bare hands, not making things any easier. When it was snowing, Marik always found it hard to see with his goggles on. He grimly wondered what it would be like if they invented tiny "windshield wipers" for goggles in these sorts of situations.

He was about to pull over and remove the troublesome objects when something shocking and horrifying appeared in his line of vision: a body. It had came from seemingly out of nowhere! Marik had to immediately slam on the brakes, but still he was certain that he heard a dull thud as the form fell to the ground. The Egyptian boy felt sick. He had never hit anyone before, even though he usually drove quite recklessly. And right now, he hadn't been driving in a wild way at all. But still . . . still _this_ had happened. . . .

Quickly he climbed off his vehicle, removing his helmet and goggles, and hastened forward, kneeling beside the still body. _That dark trenchcoat looks familiar,_ he thought to himself as he carefully shook the other male on the shoulder. As he blinked through the blizzard and saw the dark brown hair, he suddenly realized why. _It was Seto Kaiba!_

Marik let out a surprised and horrified gasp. "Kaiba!" he yelled, turning him over. As he did so, he abruptly felt a horrible weight slam into the back of his head. Wordlessly he fell to the ground across Seto's body, everything going black.

It seemed many ages later when Marik finally regained consciousness. As he did, he found the icy snow poking into his face and hands. With a groan he rose up, rubbing at the bump that was shooting pain all through his head. The snow was still coming down, he observed, and his motorcycle was still there. It took him a moment to remember what had happened just prior to being struck, but when he did he suddenly gasped, realization sweeping over him. _Seto Kaiba's body was gone!_


	8. Gone!

Marik stumbled through the snow, pulling his leather jacket close around him as he sneezed from the cold. His lavender eyes were blank with confusion. Had he actually struck down and killed Seto Kaiba, albeit accidentally? Or had he crashed his motorcycle in the snowdrift and it had all been a dream? But no . . . Marik knew it had really happened. He had taken off his helmet and goggles before kneeling down beside Seto's body. Then something hard had struck him on the head. When he regained consciousness, the body had disappeared. There was still the imprint in the snow where it had been. The only explanation was that someone had purposely knocked Marik unconscious in order to remove the corpse. But why would they have taken a dead body? Maybe Seto was still alive.

Marik decided he had to believe that this was true. He didn't know how he could bear the thought of having killed Seto, young Mokuba's brother, and especially so close to Christmas like this! He clenched his fists. He would find where Seto was now. Somehow he had to. In hopes that whoever had taken him hadn't gone far, Marik was wandering through the immediate vicinity. If he had no luck, he would return soon for his motorcycle and drive around—if he could manage to do so in all the snow. It was even worse than before, having increased once again to severe blizzard conditions.

"Marik?"

Hearing the familiar voice, the Egyptian boy whirled around to find himself looking at a dazed Yugi. His clothes were torn and he was limping badly, scratches visible on his face and hands. Obviously he had been in some sort of accident. _Well . . . or else he'd been beaten up for some reason. . . ._ With their luck, both scenarios were quite possible.

"Yugi! What the devil happened to you?" Marik cried in disbelief, hastening over. "You're hurt!"

Yugi swayed, nearly falling over save for Marik quickly laying his hands on the short boy's shoulders and preventing it. "There was an accident," he said, worry and fear now glistening in his violet eyes. "Kaiba and Yami and Pegasus and I were all in Kaiba's limo when the brakes gave out and we went off the road into a snowbank!" A bit of blood trickled from a cut on the side of his head, but the boy barely noticed. He was lost in the memories of experiencing the car crash—the limo turning over, the dull thud when it stopped, Yugi blacking out and then waking up to discover that he and Atemu were the only ones still in the vehicle. . . . Atemu had been unconscious and Yugi had dragged him out into the snow, fearing a possible explosion, and then had gone ahead to look for help, knowing he wouldn't be able to go far and also that he wouldn't be able to carry his Yami.

Marik frowned, wanting desperately to ask what they had been doing with Pegasus but knowing that would have to wait. "Where are the others?" he asked instead, gently easing Yugi down onto a nearby tree stump while he tried to see if the other boy was seriously hurt.

Yugi leaped right back up again. "Yami's over there," he said shakily, pointing in the direction of the crash. "None of the others were around when I woke up . . . not even the chauffeur." He was baffled and horrified by this fact. Everyone had been wearing seatbelts. Where could the others have gone? Had they been thrown out anyway? Or . . . had they gone off for some reason? What if they had been abducted?

Marik swallowed hard. "I hit Kaiba," he said barely above a whisper.

Yugi stared at him. "What?!" he cried.

As Marik helped Yugi walk back to where the limo was crashed, he told him of what had happened. "He just came from out of nowhere," he said at the conclusion, his voice haunted. "I didn't know . . . I didn't see him. . . . He was just suddenly _there_. . . ." Seeing Yami Yugi laying ahead in the snow, where Yugi had dragged him, the Egyptian teen knelt down to examine the Pharaoh for injuries. Yugi needed to be better examined as well, but he knew the boy wouldn't allow that to happen until Atemu was looked at. Marik swallowed hard, speaking again. "And then . . . then he was gone. When I came to, he was gone!"

It was strange, he realized suddenly, that he was here tending to the Pharaoh. When he had first arrived in Domino, his only intent had been to take revenge on him for the crime he was certain the man had committed. But now that he knew Atemu had not done wrong to the Ishtar family, here he was—friends with him and with everyone else. It was such a change. A welcome change.

Yugi bit his lip, worried about Atemu but knowing that Marik needed comfort at this point. "You tried to stop," he said gently. "You never would have hit him on purpose. And he's probably alive. Like you said, why would someone take . . . take a dead body?" He swallowed hard, trying not to think of Seto being dead.

"To make me think I'm crazy?" Marik muttered.

At that moment Atemu moaned and stirred, starting to wake up from Marik's and Yugi's gentle attempts. His eyes opened slowly, focusing on the two around him as he tried to remember what had happened just prior to this. His mind was a blank.

"Yami?" Yugi cried worriedly, leaning over—and wincing as he did so. "Are you okay?"

The Pharaoh blinked slowly, registering Yugi's voice and presence. "Yes," he said slowly, "but what happened, Yugi? Where are Kaiba and Pegasus?" As he became more aware, he realized that Yugi himself was hurt and he frowned.

"I don't know!" Yugi wailed helplessly. "Marik saw Kaiba, but he disappeared." He didn't tell the details. He would leave that for later. Still he wasn't completely sure if his Yami was alright, though he was starting to sit up now with Marik's assistance.

Yami Yugi looked around, realizing that something was gravely amiss. But it would have to wait for a moment while he tended to his Hikari. Despite Yugi's protests, he set about doing exactly that.

&&&&

Téa struggled, flailing about as she tried to get free, but it seemed that there was no hope. Whoever was holding her had a viselike grip and wasn't about to let go. Rex's feeble attempts to help her were in vain, as another man swiftly appeared and raised him right up into the air while he yelled in protest.

"Hey!"

Everyone turned to look. Joey and Tristan were standing in the doorway and they didn't look pleased. Téa wasn't sure she'd ever been so grateful to see them before. "Joey! Tristan!" she exclaimed, her eyes brightening. _Saved!_

"A little help here?!" Rex yelled, kicking out at his captor in frustration.

"Say 'please,' Dino-boy," Joey smirked in jest before lunging at the man. Tristan took the one holding Téa. Together they managed to free their friends and get the thugs pinned to the floor.

"Téa, call the police!" Tristan ordered. Téa was only too happy to comply.

"Alright, now we want some answers!" Joey said threateningly, grabbing the man by the collar of his business suit. "Why did you break in and why were you bothering them?" He held his fist as if he were about to punch the thug again. He was not in a good mood. There were only a few days left to Christmas, Del Vinci and his gang was still at large, and Joey still had to finish his Christmas shopping. Plus, Serenity had received a box of roses from Duke that morning. Joey had already decided that this day was not going to go over well with him.

"Bosses' orders," was the reply. The man seemed unintimidated, despite what Joey and Tristan had just done. No matter how the two tried, they couldn't get any other response out of either of them. When the police officers came, they didn't have any better luck. Even asking if Del Vinci was their boss produced no results.

When the men were finally being taken to jail, the four teens were finally able to talk and exchange stories of what had been happening to them. Joey and Tristan, it turned out, had come to the mall hoping to do some shopping and had decided to drop in at Mr. Thorton's store and say hello. Instead they had found another weird occurrence.

"So where's that cockroach Weevil?" Joey asked finally, knowing that Rex was bosom buddies with the mint-haired terror.

"He's supposed to be here, actually," Rex said with a frown. "Come to think of it, the last I saw of him was right before those goons came in the first time." He scratched his head, looking about as if he expected Weevil to suddenly emerge from the woodwork.

As it just so happened, he did, more or less.

"Hmph. Some _friend_ you turned out to be!" Weevil's unmistakable voice came from behind Mr. Thorton's office door. After a moment of hearing a soft clicking sound, it swung open and Weevil stalked out, looking furious. Not having expected to find more than just Rex in the main room, he stopped and glared at them all.

"What did I do?!" Rex yelled in irritation.

"You didn't get me out of there!" Weevil retorted.

"I didn't know you were in there!" Rex said indignantly. "You could've hollered or something."

Weevil simply glared, too proud to admit that the thugs had knocked him out and left him locked in Thorton's closet.

"Oh my! Oh no! Oh gracious!"

Again everyone turned. Burt Thorton was now standing in the entranceway, staring aghast at the disaster zone his shop had been turned into. Around his neck were at least five rabbits' feet and ten four-leaf clovers, and his shopping bag was bulging to the brim with rubber stress balls.

"It's horrible and hopeless!" he moaned, sinking onto the countertop and not having seemed to really acknowledge the presence of anyone else in the room. "Del Vinci isn't going to leave me alone. My sister is going to be in terrible danger because I revealed all those secrets!" He felt dizzy with worry.

Téa sighed, laying a hand on his shoulder compassionately. "Everything's going to be alright, Mr. Thorton," she said firmly. "We won't let anything happen to her or to you."

"How can you promise that?!" Thorton wailed. "You couldn't even keep my store from being trounced upon!" As he glanced at the cash register blearily, a white powder spilled over the keypad caught his eye. "What on earth?!"

Immediately everyone was gathered around the machine. Joey was the first to deduce that the substance spread over the top was cocaine, much to Thorton's sheer horror, Téa's and Tristan's astonishment, and Weevil's and Rex's surprise.

&&&&

The bikers weren't having much better luck. A few moments earlier, there had been a breach of KaibaCorp security and now there were gunmen roaming down every corridor of the building. The infirmary was under lockdown in an attempt to protect all of the patients—but Alister knew that he was the one the thugs wanted. As long as he was in the building, everyone was in danger.

"I can't stay here," he growled low, starting to attempt climbing out of the bed.

Instantly Raphael was grabbing the skinny young man's shoulders, trying to restrain him. "You know you're not well enough to get up," he scolded. It was hard, he realized—trying to hold a badly injured person down without hurting him worse.

Alister tried to push him away. "You and Valon are in danger too," he muttered. "As long as you're associated with me, you're on Del Vinci's hit list." He managed to stand for all of two seconds before dizziness sent him crashing forward and forcing Valon to catch him.

"Hey!" the Australian cried, struggling to hold the tall redhead's body. "You're wacked, Alister! When Raph found you last night you were almost dead! And now you wanna get up and roam around?" Somehow he managed to ease Alister back onto the bed before standing over him determinedly. "You're not getting up until you're more on the mend." Of course he hadn't seen Alister when he had been laying near-death, so he didn't have that haunting memory, but he could still see that his friend wasn't feeling up to par.

"Do you want us all to die?" was Alister's retort. "Del Vinci is getting desperate now. Somehow he found out that I'm still alive. And while he may need me alive so he can continue attempting to get the information from me, you two are completely unnecessary to his plans." _Unless he tries to use you against me. If he knows I care about you and Raphael, he might put your lives on the line and then force me to tell him what he wants to know. Of course, he'd probably kill you whether I told him or not._

"We can deal with him," Raphael said firmly. "Look at yourself—you're skin and bones. Del Vinci must have been starving you." And of course Alister had various wounds all over his body, not to mention nearly having had a bullet rip through his heart. He was in no condition to leave here, especially not to try escaping from a group of assassins. _No . . . that wasn't quite what he wanted to do. Alister wouldn't run away. He wanted to leave to protect the others._

Alister grunted. "Look, these are the kind of people who would make a massacre to get what they want," he said coldly. "I don't know about you, but I'm not crazy about the idea of blood running down these halls." Valon shuddered slightly at the mental image Alister was painting.

Outside in the hall Raphael could hear a gun being fired at the ceiling in warning and several people screaming. Somehow the hitmen had broken into the infirmary. His eyes narrowed. "You'll leave here, Alister," he said finally. "Only you won't be trying something stupid like going alone. We're both coming with you." Not only was Alister much too weak to fend for himself right now, but Raphael wasn't the kind of cold-hearted, selfish person who would let his friend go wandering off into certain danger just to keep himself safe.

Alister was silent. He knew Raphael meant it, and from Valon's stern eyes, he did as well. It felt good, to know that he was cared about.

At that moment, the room glowed as a mysterious hole seemed to open up in the floor. Valon gave a startled exclamation and backed out of the way, tripping over the bed and winding up sitting on it as a man slowly rose from the hole. All three bikers stared at this phenomenon in utter disbelief.

Shadi observed them calmly. "You will not be able to leave this room alive unless you come with me," he proclaimed. "There is too much chaos in the infirmary."

"Who are you?" Raphael demanded, feeling a certain protectiveness flair up. Strange men who suddenly rose out of the floor didn't exactly instantly gain his trust, especially if they sounded a lot like Dartz when they spoke.

"That is not important," Shadi replied. "Come." Without giving any of them a chance to protest, he vanished again—taking all three bikers with him.

&&&&

Mokuba was sitting boredly on the floor in his room, playing a video game that wasn't really keeping his interest. Seto had been gone when he'd woken up. He knew something was wrong, despite Seto's vehement insistence that there was not. And it probably had something to do with Del Vinci. Mokuba knew very well that Seto was trying to catch the Mafia don. Or maybe it had something to do with Pegasus showing up. Velma had told him that Pegasus had flown in on his helicopter and landed on the front lawn, bringing some sort of ill news with him—though she wouldn't tell him exactly what.

"This isn't the kind of Christmas I was hoping for," the child sighed sadly, turning the video game off and going to the window. He leaned on the sill, staring out into the swiftly falling flakes. _Seto . . . where are you?_

At that moment he caught sight of someone limping across the lawn and he perked up, throwing the window open despite the snow that came swirling inside. "Seto?" he called hopefully. His eyes widened in shock when he saw that it was not Seto, but Pegasus!

Pegasus looked up when Mokuba called for his brother. He grabbed onto a tree trunk for support and called back to the boy, his voice genuinely regretful. "I'm sorry, little Mokuba. Your brother's been taken. And I'm afraid he won't be coming back!"


	9. New Plans

Mokuba could only stare at Pegasus in confusion and disbelief. "What do you mean?!" he screamed finally, clutching the windowsill as his heart started to pound wildly. Seto would come back! He would always come back, unless . . . unless he was. . . . But no . . . no, he wasn't! He couldn't be. Not Seto . . . not his brother. "What do you mean, 'He won't be coming back'?! Are you trying to say he's. . . ." He trailed off, tears filling his blue-gray eyes.

Pegasus sighed, shaking his head. "If he's not, he will be soon," he replied, speaking to Mokuba as an adult. Carefully he began to explain what happened after the limo had crashed. When he had gotten over being dazed, he had found Seto laying on the "floor," his seatbelt having come loose somehow. He had been so still that at first Pegasus had been certain he was already dead, but the ninjas who had then taken them both seemed to think Seto was alive. At least, that seemed the only logical explanation. After all, why would they want a corpse?

"As they dragged us through the snow," he continued, "Kaiba-boy woke up and tried to get away. (I had been attempting the same, of course.) They tried to restrain him, but he ran out and seemed to get struck by a motorcycle." He paused when Mokuba let out a horrified gasp. "Of course, perhaps he merely tripped and the biker stopped before he would have hit him," Pegasus said with a shrug. "In any case, the boy riding the motorcycle was knocked unconscious as soon as he tried to see if your brother was still alive."

Mokuba attempted to blink away the tears that were gathering in his eyes again. "Why didn't you help Seto?!" he cried indignantly. "You could have done something!" His young mind raced with possibilities. What if Pegasus had been partially responsible for what had happened to Seto and he wasn't trustworthy after all? It had been hard for Mokuba to trust the man after everything he had done, but it really had seemed that Pegasus had repented. Supposing he hadn't, though. . . . Mokuba swallowed hard, trying not to think about that.

Pegasus straightened up, pulling a handkerchief out and dabbing at the blood trailing down his face. "I did try," he frowned, though he could understand Mokuba's distress. "In fact, I wasn't doing too badly for myself, considering everything we'd just come through. I tried to call to that biker, but I was rendered senseless as well. When I came to myself again, they had taken Kaiba-boy and left me behind in the snow not far from here." He looked at the warm house longingly. "And won't you at least invite me in? Really, I won't bite."

Mokuba turned away from the window in a daze. "Come in if you want to," he mumbled, his world being torn apart and asunder. _Who had taken Seto? Why? Was he badly hurt? Or worse . . . the unthinkable. . . ._ The child only knew that he had to get his brother back.

That was when a strange portal opened in the ceiling and three extremely startled young men fell out. Mokuba looked up, his eyes widening in stunned shock as one crashed onto the bed while the other two wound up sprawled on the floor. He stared, taking the three of them in with appalled orbs. The two on the floor were dazed, while the one on the bed looked dazed as well as dizzy and ill. And it dawned on Mokuba that he knew these people. He hadn't seen them for quite some time, but they hadn't changed since then. When he recovered from the initial shock, he recognized them instantly.

"Crikey," the brunette Australian moaned, rubbing his head. "I think I almost cracked my skull on the bedpost!" He looked around, taking in the sight of the young boy's room. Of all places in Domino City, this was probably where he had expected least of all to wind up.

The blonde grunted, sitting up and looking over at their friend on the bed. The redhead had slumped into the pillows, gazing upward without blinking. Since he had still been hurt, he took the whole experience the worst of the three of them, even though he had landed on something soft.

"What are you guys doing here?!" Mokuba burst out, finally finding his voice. "And what happened to Alister?!" He ran over to the bed, looking down at the man who had once been Seto's enemy—and hence, his own as well. Though originally he hadn't liked Alister, later on he had felt sorry for him when he realized that the gray-eyed man's actions were simply because he was heartbroken over the loss of his brother and his parents. After all, if Mokuba had lost Seto and had been led to believe that someone in particular had caused it, how did he know he wouldn't have reacted the very same way? In the end, Mokuba had been one of the only people to have seen a glimpse of Alister's soft, gentle side. Something about him had reminded Alister of his own brother.

Now Alister looked over, reaching out for Mokuba almost in desperation. "Miruko?" he whispered, not quite grasping the present in his dazed condition.

Mokuba bit his lip, feeling uncomfortable. He looked to Valon and Raphael, who were both getting up, and then back to Alister as the injured young man grabbed the child's hand, looking at him pleadingly.

"No," Mokuba said then, his voice shaking as he laid his other hand over Alister's, "I'm not Miruko. . . . I'm Mokuba . . . Seto's brother." The tears spilled over as he said this. _Where was Seto right now? Why had the bikers suddenly fallen into his room? And why was Alister mistaking him for his deceased younger brother?_ It all seemed so overwhelming. . . . It was so much to have happen all within five minutes. . . .

Alister stared at him, not seeming to comprehend. At last he sighed, his vision clearing, and then withdrew his hand, looking down. "Forgive me," he said quietly, realizing how much he must have frightened Mokuba. He really hadn't meant to; he had just been so dazed after Shadi had taken them into the portal that his mind had blanked into the past. The mention of Seto Kaiba had brought him back into the present situation.

"As to what we're doing here," Raphael said once Alister was back to normal, "we'd like to know that ourselves." _At least Alister landed in the bed,_ he thought to himself. If Alister had hit the floor, he probably would have gotten hurt even worse than he already was.

"Some bloke came out of the floor in your brother's infirmary and carted us all off," Valon supplied, still confused about it all. It was relatively normal, he supposed, compared to having one's soul forcefully ripped from their body, but it was still its own kind of strange. "And then we wound up here."

Mokuba sat on the edge of the bed, frowning. "That sounds like Shadi," he said. But if Shadi would send them here, he must have had a good reason. The child couldn't help wondering if it was at all possible that the bikers would have an idea as to what had happened to Seto. "I think," he said, trying not to let his hopefulness become too apparent as he looked at each biker in turn, "that we have stories to share."

&&&&

When Yugi, Atemu, and Marik made it back to the city—after Marik had called Ishizu on a nearby payphone and had told her to please come bring the car, as there was one too many people to all fit on the motorcycle—they decided that the wisest course of action would be to go to Kaiba Manor and see if possibly Seto and Pegasus had wound up back there somehow, or at least had checked in. They had driven all around the area where the limo had crashed and there was positively no one else there, so it seemed the only reasonable thing to do. They would have called the manor before going over, but the line had seemed to be dead when Marik had tried.

The last thing any of them expected to find was Mokuba and Pegasus talking with the former Doom "soul collectors" about what had happened earlier with Seto, as well as the bikers' own misfortunes of the past few hours. Ishizu was particularly astounded by Alister, as he of course had been the "dead man" in her vision. As they continued to tell each other about their experiences, the group eventually concluded that Seto must have been taken by Del Vinci, though no one could figure out why or how.

"In the past, Del Vinci always came after me to get at Seto," Mokuba said sadly. Marik put an arm around his young friend comfortingly and Mokuba leaned against him. "I just don't understand!" the child cried now. "Why would he take Seto this time and leave me here?!" Not that Mokuba wanted to be taken, but he knew very well that if Del Vinci wanted to torture Seto, the best way to do it was to take away that which was most precious to him. Since it seemed that Del Vinci must have broken with tradition, it made Mokuba all the more worried about what he could be planning.

"I do highly doubt that he decided to take Kaiba-boy because of the threat made against him for keeping Alister alive in his infirmary," Pegasus spoke up. "Del Vinci himself most likely wanted Alister to stay alive for the time being. His men, according to Alister, accidentally almost killed him during one of the torture sessions and Del Vinci was most likely quite furious about that." He glanced over at the redhead, who was now laying on one of the couches in the upstairs library—where they were all gathered—and intently listening to everything.

"Maybe we should call the others," Yugi spoke up worriedly. "They might be able to help us brainstorm. What's more, they could even be in danger themselves!" He didn't doubt it, really, with their luck. And he was right, of course. As he made the calls—from Ishizu's cell phone—he found out about the events that everyone else had experienced and about how most everything had not gone calmly. In turn, the others were shocked to hear about the events Yugi had been a part of and about how Seto had simply vanished. They all promised to come right over.

"Well," the violet-eyed boy said as he hung up from talking to Bakura, "I guess all we can do now is wait." He leaned back in the chair nervously, wondering exactly what they were going to do. He had wanted to call the police, but as Alister pointed out, they didn't know which of the officers weren't corrupt. When the others arrived, Yugi hoped that Duke would still have his lists of who all was crooked in Domino City and that they could figure things out. Perhaps the lieutenant who had been helpful to Duke a couple of days ago would be willing to help again.

&&&&

Khu and Seth had also been called by Yugi. After temporarily deciding to give up on cracking the frustrating code, they set out to find their way to the Kaiba Manor. Solomon absolutely refused to let Khu drive his truck after hearing about the time he had driven a taxi cab through a wall—especially since it was still snowing and Khu might make a worse mess of things—so at last Khu grudgingly asked Seth to simply teleport them there.

Seth was about to do exactly that when a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky. Instantly both he and Khu looked up at it, frowning and knowing the only one who could be responsible for such a display while it was snowing like mad outside. They knew Runihura must be at work again, but neither one was certain of exactly what his motives were.

"I know he wants to challenge someone," Khu growled, "but who and why?" He was still berating himself for his part in unleashing this insane force upon the modern world, but he didn't quite know what to do about it now. Not even Pharaoh Atemu had been able to kill him back in ancient Egypt. That was why he had been compelled to put the Destroyer into the Eternal Sleep of suspended animation. And now he was loose again.

"Well," Solomon said as he came up behind them, "I suppose this is only a wild guess, but perhaps he's fighting that other man up there." He pointed up into the sky, where two figures were now vaguely visible. Ordinarily he might find this sight shocking, but he was much too weary to find it so now, after everything else.

Seth's mouth dropped open. "In light of this development," he declared, "I think we can afford to delay a bit in getting to Kaiba's place." He was highly curious now, not to mention a bit disturbed. Whoever Runihura was fighting seemed to be holding his own, and not very many people were able to do that for very long without being overcome by the Destroyer's powerful and eerie abilities. Seth felt a need to see if this person would actually win. He could see that Khu felt the same way.

&&&&

In the meantime, Joey was trying to drive his rickety jalopy full of passengers—Tristan, Téa, Duke, and Bakura—to Kaiba Manor. He sighed to himself as he turned the windshield wipers on to brush the ever-accumulating snowflakes away from his line of vision. At least Serenity hadn't found out about everything. That was something to be grateful for. She had gone out shopping with their mother while Joey had still been at the mall and they hadn't returned yet. So Joey had just written a quick note telling her that he had gone off with some of the others to "do some Christmas planning." That was technically true, after all. If they didn't get Seto back soon, Mokuba wouldn't have a happy Christmas at all—and that just wouldn't do. And well . . . Joey admitted to himself that he didn't really want Seto to be somewhere held hostage and tortured, as he had been told that Alister had been.

"Hey!" Téa spoke up suddenly, a certain glimmer coming into her blue eyes. "I just remembered something!"

Everyone turned to look at her. "Well?" Duke said impatiently. "Don't keep us in suspense. What is it?"

Téa didn't pay him any attention. "When we were in Cooperstown last week, I found a note that was from someone in Del Vinci's gang!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe I forgot about it. I gave it to Kaiba when we were at the hospital later on."

"Well, how will that help us now?" Tristan grumped. "Kaiba has it and Kaiba's kinda flown the coop."

Téa shook her head. "That's not the point, Tristan! The point is that Del Vinci's gang must have been in Cooperstown. Maybe they have a hideout there!" Her eyes glimmered as she considered that she could be right. Maybe they wouldn't have such a terrible time finding Seto after all! At least she could hope as much.

"Oh my," Bakura said softly. He had left Oreo home to keep Yami Bakura company and now he clasped his hands in his lap worriedly, wondering if they were going to need to return to that terrible town. Naturally if it was possible that Seto was there, they would have to. But with all the snow, how were they even going to be able to? There could be enough snow in the canyons to create an avalanche and then some. It wasn't likely that the snowplows had been able to get to the canyon roads yet, either. How would Joey's jalopy even stand a chance?

"A hideout?" Joey repeated now, swerving quickly to avoid a dog running across the street. "Aw man. . . ." He was having the same thoughts as Bakura. Though he was too proud to admit it, he knew very well that his car would never be able to get into the canyons if they suddenly decided they needed to go there. But on the other hand . . . how would anyone else have gotten in there either? Maybe, he hoped, the possibility of Seto being there was really very unlikely.

That was when they all noticed the fight in the sky. In stunned shock they watched as energy blasts and lightning flitted from one person to another and as blood rained every now and then along with the snow. Alarmed and a bit disgusted, Joey tried to move his jalopy away from the crimson trails.

"Who's fighting up there?!" Tristan cried in astonishment, squinting as he tried to see beyond the plump snowflakes.

"The two of 'em actually look kinda alike," Joey remarked, seeing that each person was wearing a tan robe complete with a white, hooded cape. Also, they each had long black hair that was freely flowing over their shoulders and down their backs.

Their fight went on for several more minutes—Joey and the others being too intrigued to drive on—when suddenly there was a horrid, ear-piercing scream of pain from one of the two. In the next moment, a limp body was falling from the sky to crash right across the hood of Joey's car.

At this sight, Téa let out a scream, jerking back as far as she could from the windshield. Joey jumped a mile, frowning as the person didn't try to get up, and then finally came out of the car after his nerves had settled down slightly. "Hey!" he yelled, grabbing the man's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

At first the only response he got was a weak moan. But as the person struggled to turn and face him, the Brooklyn boy's eyes went wide. _It was Shadi!_


	10. Hit and Run

Immediately Joey looked up at the other occupants of the car. "It looks like you were right, Bakura," he remarked. "This guy here is Shadi!" He frowned, puzzling over what could have possessed the guardian of the Millennium Items to be warring with some strange person in the sky. And there was the matter of how much the two had seemed to look alike. . . . _What was going on?!_

"Shadi?!" everyone else repeated.

"Yeah!" Joey said, shaking his head in disbelief. He reached over, trying to help Shadi up and to see how badly he was hurt. Blood was running down the man's face, as well as from wounds on his right shoulder and his chest. Whoever he had been fighting had definitely been fierce. "Are you alright?!" the blonde boy exclaimed.

Shadi shuddered, struggling to sit up by himself. "It is not me you should concern yourself over, but Runihura." He didn't explain this cryptic statement and instead clapped a hand over the wound in his chest, obviously in pain.

"Who the heck is that?!" Joey cried in confusion.

A gravelly chuckle soon met his ears and he whirled to see Shadi's opponent standing a yard or so away, lightning crackling at his fingertips. The only major physical differences separating him from Shadi were the long scar on the left side of his face, the more pointed and unruly hair (as opposed to Shadi's curls), and the psychotic grin. Otherwise, especially from a distance, the two looked almost identical. "Forgive me," he purred now. "I should have introduced myself earlier. I am Runihura. In your language my name means Destroyer." He took a step forward and Shadi's eyes narrowed coldly.

"Who is that freak?!" Téa cried in horror, tensing and moving closer to Bakura. The British boy was simply staring with wide eyes, Tristan, Joey, and Duke all following suit.

"Is he trying to say his parents wanted him to be some kind of annihilation machine?!" Tristan frowned in confusion. "I mean, why else would someone name their kid something that means 'Destroyer'?!"

Runihura laughed nastily. "I was named that because that's what I was," he replied cryptically, "and am." He surveyed the scene, seeming especially interested in the fact that Shadi had fallen onto a modern method of transportation. And he remembered these youths from the ghost town in the canyons. He had been observing them all, though they hadn't realized it. Idly he wondered if their paths would continue to cross. And then he decided that it was very likely, in light of what his plans were.

"The damage has already been done," Shadi spoke now. "You have no reason to remain here, Destroyer." He clutched the Ankh in his shaking hand, pointing it at this strange intruder. His dark curls fell into his face, but he made no move to brush them aside. All of his strength was being pooled into the possibility of needing to attack Runihura again to protect the others. There was no reason to involve them in this.

"Perhaps not, but it amuses me anyway," Runihura smirked. Joey noticed that he didn't have a wound on him. "This isn't over, of course," the Egyptian added with a wide gesture.

Shadi regarded him icily. "It will not be over until you are returned to the Eternal Sleep."

"Which will not be happening," Runihura answered smoothly as he vanished with a clap of thunder. Joey and the others stared at the spot where he had been, appalled and confused.

"Alright, question and answer time," the Brooklyn boy declared, eyeing Shadi. "Who's that weirdo, why were you two fighting, and how come he wasn't even wounded?!"

Shadi didn't answer immediately, seeming to be gathering his strength and his thoughts. At last he looked back up at Joey and darkly said, "The wounds I bear are both mine and his," before vanishing as suddenly as he had appeared. He didn't intend to get them involved any more than they had to be. They were already in over their heads with the crime boss Del Vinci. There was no need for them to concern themselves over the even more grim and dangerous problem of Runihura the Destroyer.

Joey growled angrily, looking at the spot where Shadi had been sprawled on the hood of the jalopy, and then came back into the car, knowing it was fruitless to continue standing outside. Shadi wouldn't return. "Man, that was just freaky," he announced. Everyone else concurred. But they had no time to sit and discuss it now. They needed to get to Kaiba Manor, as did Seth and Khu—who had been watching everything from a distance.

"Show's over," Khu muttered. "Let's get going."

"Should we tell them about Runihura?" Seth wondered as he prepared again to teleport them both out.

Khu shrugged. "They'll find out soon enough anyway. Let's not."

Seth sighed.

* * *

Back at Kaiba Manor, Pegasus was telling the others about the research he had been doing concerning the employee who had been selling company secrets to Del Vinci—and on Del Vinci himself. "It's all quite top secret, of course," he said, "and kept under close watch by my guards. And you know, it might be a good idea for all of you to have it. You've encountered Del Vinci more than I have. Maybe you'd be able to make some sense out of it."

"Well, where is it?" Mokuba demanded, his blue-gray eyes filled with unshed tears. He was willing to try anything that might help in getting Seto back. If Del Vinci had him, they had no time to waste.

"Patience, patience," Pegasus scolded, wagging a finger at the child, who just looked frustrated. The man leaned forward, locking eyes with each person in turn. "As I said, it's under lock and key. It's at my San Francisco office. The only way any of you could have it is if I telephoned and told them to fly up here and bring it."

"Do it then!" Mokuba cried. "Please!" He clenched his fists, looking at Pegasus with the desperate sadness of a pained brother. "If there's any way it might lead us to Seto, we have to try. I . . . I can't lose him. I just can't!"

Marik's eyes narrowed with determination. "You won't, my friend," he reassured him. "I swear, I'll do everything in my power to get your brother back to you." He still couldn't help but feel slightly responsible. What if he actually had hit Seto? Mokuba was certain that he hadn't, but Marik wasn't sure at all. He was a skilled driver, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't ever get involved in an accident. When Seto had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, it was very possible that Marik had struck him with the motorcycle. Hopefully it wouldn't have been a fatal blow, but even if it hadn't been, it was likely that it would have hurt Seto even worse than he already was.

Rishid laid a strong hand on the boy's shoulder, sensing his feelings. Marik would never want anything to happen to his young friend's brother, and especially he wouldn't want to have to live with the guilt of having possibly caused some of his troubles. If Rishid could, he would take all of Marik's sadness and pain away. But he knew that was beyond his abilities. He could only offer his comfort to the brother he loved more than life itself. Still, Marik seemed to find that good enough.

* * *

When Joey finally pulled up near the Kaiba Manor, he and the others were all stunned to see the flashing lights of an ambulance.

"What happened here?!" Téa cried in horror. Every part of her mind was screaming, _No! Not another disaster! Not someone else being hurt!_ But she swallowed hard, knowing that there would likely never be an end to this. She and Yugi had used to live quite a peaceful life, until the Millennium Puzzle entered the scene. Ever since then they had been having endless misadventures. Even the supposed departure of the Pharaoh to the land of the dead hadn't ended things. He had wound up returning eventually, along with the supposedly destroyed Millennium Items, to avert another calamity. And it had just continued on from there. _And, _Téa thought to herself, _it probably always would._

"Well, let's find out!" Joey said in determination as he parked the car and leaped out. The others quickly followed him and they soon came upon Yugi, Atemu, and Raphael, who were watching grimly as the ambulance began to drive away.

"Yugi!" Téa called as she ran over. The boy turned to look at her, worry shining in his violet eyes. Téa looked from him to Atemu to Raphael and then back again, her heart pounding. "Who was hurt, Yugi?" she asked. _Or was it worse than them just being hurt?_

"It was Pegasus," Yugi replied, unconsciously clutching the Millennium Puzzle in his hands.

"Pegasus?!" Tristan repeated as he and the other boys caught up.

"Why don't you explain this from the top, Yug?" Joey suggested, finding himself extremely baffled.

Yugi sighed, looking after the departing ambulance. "He went outside to try to call Industrial Illusions from the phone in his limo," he began. "See, the phones inside aren't working and something went wrong with Pegasus's cell phone too." He frowned at this, wondering what it could have been. The device had been working fine just a short while ago.

"But when he went outside and tried to go across the street to his limo, he was struck down by a car," Yami Yugi continued grimly, still remembering the sounds of the thump and the screeching brakes. Mokuba had sprang to his feet in alarm when he had heard it. Raphael had told the child to remain inside with Valon and Alister while he investigated. Yugi and Atemu had then joined him and found Pegasus laying in the road while the car sped away.

"Oh my!" Bakura exclaimed in alarm, his soft brown eyes widening in horror. "Is he going to be alright?"

"We're not sure yet," Raphael spoke up darkly. It had definitely been deliberate. There was no question in his mind of this. All of them were still in danger. And with Pegasus out of commission, what were they going to do to get hold of that possibly important research? He had said the guards would only release it if he spoke to them himself.

"Let's go inside," Yami Yugi said quietly. "There isn't much we can do out here." The others concurred.

* * *

Back inside the warm house, everyone discussed the twists and turns of the case and their ideas for what could be done about it. Unfortunately, they didn't have very many. There were mixed feelings on what to do concerning checking Cooperstown for Seto. It seemed to be their only lead, but it was true that it would be next to impossible to get into the ghost town with the current blizzard.

"Maybe they took a jet," Mokuba mused from where he was sitting with Marik, nursing a cup of hot chocolate. "But they'd have to have a really good pilot to not get into some kind of accident. . . ." He sighed sadly and worriedly, tears filling his eyes as he again wondered what had become of his dear brother. _Seto could be anywhere!_ And what was so much worse, no one knew if he was alive. He had been hurt in the car crash—and possibly by being struck by Marik, though Mokuba refused to believe that such a thing had happened—and might be in need of medical help. If Del Vinci had him, it wasn't likely that he would provide it.

Joey slammed his fist into his palm. "Man, if we could just get our hands on Pegasus's research!" he cried in frustration.

"But we need Pegasus to do that," Téa said gloomily. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about the news of Pegasus being struck down. When they had first met him, he had been a dangerous and formidable enemy, capturing people's souls in cards and forcing others to play his little games. But later on he had seemed to change. He had rescued Solomon, Mokuba, and Téa herself from being crushed in Seto's collapsing Duel Dome building during the misadventure with the Pyramid of Light and later had tried to give Yugi information on the Doom organization. Téa supposed that she didn't really want anything bad to happen to him. Being purposely hit by a car was a horrible way to die. And she didn't want anyone to die from these cases.

Suddenly Mokuba looked up, his eyes wide. "Or," he said slowly, an idea beginning to form, "someone who sounds like him. . . ." _He knew someone who could imitate Pegasus near-perfectly. And in light of things, Mokuba was certain he'd do it again. At least, he hoped so. It might be their only chance to rescue Seto!_

Instantly all eyes were upon the child. "What are you talking about, Mokuba?!" Tristan cried. "I seriously doubt that there's _anyone_ who sounds like that guy." He then tried to prove his point by doing an extremely bad impression of the eccentric businessman, which produced much wincing on the part of the others present.

"Tristan," Joey sighed, "do me a favor. Never go into voice acting." He shuddered, wondering if he would ever recover from this horror.

Alister was slowly sitting up, looking irritated as well. "That's not how it's done," he said to Tristan. He had caught the look from Mokuba and knew what the boy was hoping. Indeed, Mokuba perked up at this and smiled. Alister would help out. Not only did he want to catch Del Vinci, but he didn't want Mokuba to be without his brother. He still wasn't sure he liked Seto Kaiba very much—after all, he _was_ a ruthless businessman—but he knew that Seto was innocent of any wrongdoing towards Alister's family. And Mokuba loved him dearly, so he couldn't be all bad.

The hazel-eyed boy frowned at the former Doom member. "Yeah?" he snorted. "I'd like to see you do better."

Alister crossed his arms. "I won't perform for you," he replied, picking up the telephone and discovering that now there was a dial tone. But he didn't think anything of it, assuming that the telephone company had merely managed to fix the problem. "The only reason I'm going to do this at all is because the research Pegasus gathered might be important." He picked out the number of Industrial Illusions and then waited while the computer answered and gave him a list of options to pick from.

Valon just blinked at his friend in confusion. "What are you going to do, Alister?" he demanded. Since the two of them had not communicated any more than they had to during most of the time when they were in Doom, he didn't know about the redhead's acting skills. After all, it wasn't something he did for a hobby. Alister only made use of those talents when it was necessary.

Raphael smirked slightly in amusement. "You'll find out in a minute," he replied, crossing his arms. He had been closer to Alister during their time in Doom than Valon had been and he had heard him doing his Pegasus imitation several times. Alister could definitely make a career out of acting if he wanted to—but he really didn't want to.

At last Alister was able to get the department he wanted on the line. He leaned back, crossing his legs, and calmly began speaking in a near-perfect imitation of Pegasus while most everyone else simply gawked at him. Only Mokuba and Raphael were not surprised. Mokuba couldn't stop from involuntarily shuddering, however, recalling the first time he had met Alister. But that time was long past and Alister had changed, though his impersonation of Pegasus was as sharp as ever.

"Now, now," he was saying into the phone, "I don't care what it takes. I want those folders sent up to Domino City immediately, with plenty of security! Do you understand me?" There was a pause. "Good. I'll be expecting them as soon as you can fly up. Watch out for the blizzard as you enter the area!" He said goodbye and hung up before regarding the others with a look that plainly said, _What are you looking at?_

Valon just stared at him. "I don't know whether I should be disturbed or triumphant, mate," he said finally. "I mean, hearin' Pegasus's voice comin' out of you. . . ." He trailed off and threw his hands in the air.

"Can you do anyone else's voice?" Joey asked, while Tristan was speechless.

Alister grunted. "I said I wouldn't perform for you," he answered. He hoped it wouldn't take a long time for the folders to be brought up from California.

Surprising himself, Mokuba ran over and hugged the redhead. "Thank you," he whispered. Alister was surprised as well, but then he smiled softly and hugged Mokuba close.

* * *

Consciousness slowly washed over the form laying sprawled on the floor in the darkened room. Weakly he tried to open his blue eyes, but he was met with only blackness. With an irritated grunt he closed them again. And so he lay there, wondering exactly what he was going to do and how he had gotten into this predicament. He couldn't remember very much about it. The last thing he remembered clearly was that he was supposed to be going to KaibaCorp. For some reason, Yugi, Atemu, and Pegasus had been with him. After that everything was a blank.

"Are you awake yet, Seto?!"

The voice was cruel and cold, with no hint of feeling or compassion. And Seto Kaiba tensed, his eyes narrowed angrily in the darkness. He hated hearing that voice almost more than anything. After the experience in Noa's virtual world he had thought he wouldn't have to hear it again. But now he was, for the second time this day.

"I'm awake, Gozaburo," he said coldly. "And I want some answers."


	11. Charity Ball

The next several hours passed by slowly as everyone waited for the research to be brought up from California. After a while, Yugi called the hospital to find out Pegasus's condition. He found out to his relief that the businessman was conscious and was expected to survive. If the driver of the car had been trying to kill him, the plan hadn't succeeded.

When he knew Yugi was on the phone, Pegasus wanted to speak with him. During the course of their conversation, he asked what they had been doing and Yugi finally was cornered into embarrassedly admitting that Alister had been recruited to do his impersonation in order to secure the files.

"Oh really?" Pegasus said smoothly, though he was not actually surprised. "Such a bad boy. I could have him arrested, you know. Impersonation is against the law."

Yugi shifted uncomfortably. "But you won't arrest him, will you, Pegasus?" he pleaded. "He wasn't trying to do anything wrong. Mokuba was just so worried about his brother, and we hoped your research would help us find him and get Del Vinci stopped. . . ."

Pegasus leaned back into the soft pillows. "Hmm," he mused, enjoying this. Yugi was so amusing to tease. "Well, I suppose I could let him off the hook just this one time," he relented finally, though he had been planning to do so all along. "As long as he promises not to do such a naughty thing again." He was feeling quite well after being struck by a car—indeed, he seemed very much in his normal spirits.

Yugi swallowed hard. "Well, I'm sure he won't," he said slowly. "He doesn't really like doing it. . . ." At least, that was the impression he had gotten.

Pegasus smiled. "Good, good." He paused. "Maybe it's my guards I should punish instead. After all, they obeyed this pseudo me." But then he laughed. "Ah, never mind, never mind. It's all for a good cause, eh, Yugi-boy?"

Yugi tried to laugh as well. "Y-yeah," he replied.

They talked for a moment longer before a horrified exclamation from Mokuba brought Yugi to a knowledge of the current situation around him. Joey had turned the television on and they seemed to be watching the news. Mokuba—and Alister—were staring in shock at a video of a businessman shaking the hand of the mayor. Across the bottom of the screen were the words _Julio Giovanni, CEO of Julio Industries, returns to Domino City._

"What's going in?" Yugi exclaimed in confusion. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him.

"That's Del Vinci!" Mokuba accused, pointing at the screen.

Everyone stared at him.

"What?!" Joey yelled. "That's crazy talk! Del Vinci's on the FBI's Most Wanted list!"

"Yeah!" Duke agreed. "He couldn't get on TV without being mobbed by law enforcement!" He had been mostly silent during the past events, as he was irritated by the whole trouble earlier with his car, but now he spoke up again.

Alister narrowed his eyes darkly. "He's disguised himself. But those of us who were tortured by him for days will never forget his voice, no matter how he tries to alter it." What was more, a master of disguise—such as Alister—could easily spot another such master.

Mokuba had something else in mind. "They showed a closeup of him and I saw his eyes." He clenched his fists. "They're so cold and cruel. I saw them when I was being locked in the vault and then again when I was being left in the snow." Though he hadn't told Seto, he often suffered nightmares about those eyes and the man who owned them. He would recognize the chilling, demonic orbs anywhere. That man was Del Vinci without a doubt.

Alister and the other two bikers turned to regard Mokuba with concern. They, of course, didn't know of these treacheries, though the others present (save for Khu and Seth) did. None of them were surprised to hear about what Del Vinci had done to the younger Kaiba, though they were all quite disgusted. Alister, especially, vowed anew that the criminal kingpin wouldn't get away with anything more. He would be stopped.

Pegasus, overhearing the conversation, frowned deeply. "Yugi-boy, you and your little friends must tread cautiously," he warned. "Little Mokuba and that rascal Alister are right." His voice lowered to a whisper. "I discovered Giovanni's well-concealed secret identity as Del Vinci. In fact, I'm certain that's the main reason why this attempt was made on my life." He looked around furtively. Everything seemed normal, and he didn't really see how he could be being eavesdropped on, but he didn't want to take any chances. "I don't want to discuss it on the phone, but you'll see all my discoveries when my folders get there." With that he hung up. Yugi was left staring at the phone in disbelief.

Valon frowned now, looking at the television. "They're sayin' the bloke is hosting some kinda Christmas charity ball tonight," he announced. _He must be trying to get into the city's good graces with this phony identity as some kind businessman,_ the Australian thought to himself.

Mokuba perked up hopefully. "Maybe I could find out some kinda clue about my brother if I went," he cried. Quickly he read over the information telling the exact address and time of the event.

Marik frowned. "Del Vinci would recognize you, my friend. It wouldn't be safe for you to go." But he knew Mokuba wouldn't give up that easily. Already Marik was planning how he would get into the charity ball himself. It was definitely possible that going there would help them in some way—and all of them recognized the fact. What they weren't sure of was how they were going to get into Julio Industries—supposedly a toy company—where the event was being held.

"It says they want volunteers," Valon continued to read the information on the screen from where he was sitting Indian-style on the floor, "and especially some concert pianists."

Mokuba moaned. "Oh great. Where would we find one of those?" He slumped back in despair. And he knew that whatever happened in the end, the others were likely to deter him from going at all. He would have to plan his own entrance, because he was determined to help in rescuing Seto.

"Actually," Valon said, "didn't you used to play piano, Raph?"

All eyes turned to the tough blonde, who grunted. "I was just a kid," he said flatly. "I doubt I'd remember any of that now." His well-to-do parents had made certain that he and his two younger siblings all took things such as piano lessons and that they learned some of the most famous music pieces. He still preferred classical music over any other genre (Valon, on the other hand, enjoyed rock and was often playing albums by bands such as Linkin Park; Alister's music of choice was big band/swing), but he hadn't touched a piano in years. Even if he could remember the basics, what were the odds that he would be able to play pieces by the great composers without making many mistakes? The thought of struggling to perform before an audience at the charity ball actually made him quite uneasy and nervous.

Joey shrugged. "Eh, well, they say that stuff like that stays with you after you've learned it—like ridin' a bike or something like it," he said, leaning on the back of the couch. "It might be our only chance to get in there. Heck, I don't think any of the rest of us have even touched a piano in our lives."

Raphael growled. He wanted to see Del Vinci captured, especially after what had been done to his close friend and surrogate brother

Alister—and if the madman was still holding children hostage, he had to be stopped and the children set free. Alister would go about freeing them and attempting to catch Del Vinci all by himself if Raphael didn't help. But of course Raphael would help. If there was ever a situation where justice was needed, it was this one. He wouldn't abandon either his friend or the children. If struggling through playing the piano was what it took to help bring about the events that needed to be, then he would have to go through with it.

Slowly the blonde got up and walked to the grand piano in the corner of the room. "I guess the worst that could happen at the party is that they could throw me out," he grunted, not looking over at the others as he sat down at the bench. "Don't come crying to me if this sounds terrible." The keys felt strangely familiar under his fingers and as he randomly played something he recalled from years ago, he was transported in his mind back to his childhood. He could hear his younger siblings laughing as they ran around the room, his music teacher telling him to concentrate on the piece he was playing, and his parents coming in to listen to him play. Then he was finished and he heard the praise of his family and his teacher.

"Hey, Raph, that wasn't half-bad."

Raphael started, coming back to the present. Valon was leaning on the side of the piano, looking impressed. The others, gathered around, all seemed satisfied with the performance.

"What'd I tell ya?" Joey grinned. "You're a natural. The knowledge stuck with you."

"You'll do it, won't you?" Mokuba pleaded, gripping at the other side of the piano. It was amazing—he hadn't seen any of the bikers since the end of Doom and now they were all in his house, he had embraced one—in childlike gratitude—and he had implored two of them to help in different ways to bring about (he prayed) the safe return of his brother Seto. The boy didn't know whether they were complying simply because of their own desire to catch Del Vinci or if they wanted to help him, too, but it didn't really matter to him. Though, he did think that Alister had a desire to assist in reuniting the brothers, despite the fact that Seto wasn't one of his favorite people. And Mokuba had seen, in various little ways, that the other two bikers had good hearts deep down. So he continued to look at Raphael hopefully.

The blonde made an unintelligible sound. "It looks that way," he said at last.

Alister didn't look extremely happy about any of the new developments. And of course, he really wasn't. He hadn't wanted anyone to become involved in "his problem," but he understood that it wasn't just _his_ problem anymore. Once Seto Kaiba had been taken, it had become the problem of a young, devoted brother—and of all of his friends. And even if that hadn't happened, Raphael and Valon had already determined that they would remain involved in capturing Del Vinci. They wouldn't abandon Alister on his quest. Though Alister was extremely concerned for their safety, he had to be grateful for their willingness to stand by him. "None of you really understand what you're getting into," he spoke at last from where he was using a desk to steady himself as he stood up. "Any one of you could be killed."

"You yourself was almost killed, mate," Valon retorted. "I think we can afford to take the same risks. 'Sides, it's been a long time since I've had a good fight." He smirked mischievously.

Alister rolled his eyes. "You'll probably wind up with a lot more than just a 'good fight.'"

Yugi watched them, seeing the underlying brotherly concern the two held for each other. He had to smile a bit. "Okay, guys," he said, "let's decide how we're going to do things. Pegasus's research should be getting here any time now and we should look it over before we make any final decisions, but still, this looks like the only good lead we've got. Let's not pass it up."

"Maybe we should divide into two groups," Téa suggested. "Half of us could go to the charity ball and the other half could try to look through the rest of the building for any clues. Kaiba could be in there somewhere." _Alive,_ she added silently with a glance at Mokuba. _Seto had to be alive. If he wasn't . . . there would be at least two people heartbroken over his death._

Khu and Seth stood near the back of the room, observing all of the proceedings quietly. While Seth looked like he wanted to assist in the venture—and probably would in the end—Khu had no desire to get involved. It wasn't their problem, so why should they make it out to be? Atemu and his fools could deal with it. But Khu looked upon such a thing as absurd for him to worry about. Runihura was the problem he was concerned over. If the madman wasn't locked away soon, Khu didn't doubt that he would begin an attempt to annihilate the world.

* * *

At last the research files arrived at Kaiba Manor and the group spent time poring over the information—or at least, most of them did. Raphael was using the time to get better reacquainted with the piano and to wonder how he'd been talked into this. Alister was outlining a blueprint of certain areas of the Julio Industries building—or, at any rate, he said, he was doing so _if_ that had been the building where he had been held hostage and tortured. Even though he had infiltrated into the gang, he knew nothing of Del Vinci's secret identity, nor the location where he had nearly been killed. Valon was telling Alister that he shouldn't even be planning on going out in the evening, though he knew it was fruitless to attempt keeping him away. Alister insisted that he was alright enough now—thanks to Raphael having found him before it was too late—and that as long as he didn't overexert himself, he should be fine.

Marik had decided that he would accompany whatever group was going to investigate throughout the rest of the building. If anyone cornered them, he planned to attempt a false story of how he wanted to join Del Vinci's empire. He already had a psuedo name in mind that he could use. As far as he knew, Del Vinci had never seen him before. If worse came to worse, he had to pray that his plan would be foolproof and that he would be able to get the others away safely. This was all extremely risky, as he and everyone well knew, but these were risks worth taking. Lives and families were at stake. And, especially at Christmastime, that just wouldn't do. Marik would make certain that Seto was rescued—as well as any other victims of Del Vinci's treachery. _This, _he vowed to himself, _will end tonight._

* * *

By evening it seemed that everything was in place—at least, as much as it could be. Seth teleported them all to outside the Julio Industries building, since they had decided it would be better not to use one of Seto's limos and risk being recognized as the young businessman's friends and associates. Then Raphael—wearing a tuxedo for the first time in years—introduced himself (and those who had opted to go with him) to the man he had talked to on the telephone and they were shown to the hall where the event was taking place. Valon and Alister, not wanting to be noticed, snuck in the back way with their own group while the man at the desk was distracted.

"We made it!" Joey said triumphantly once they were in one of the winding corridors. He tugged impatiently at the tie of his own tuxedo, loosening it. Everyone had chosen to wear formal clothing tonight, just in case they needed to use the excuse that they had been going to the charity ball—or in case they wound up actually needing to go into that room. And some of them, especially Joey and Valon, were not pleased with their attires.

"I feel like I'm chokin' to death," Valon muttered, pulling his tie all the way off and crumpling it into his pocket. He looked up at Alister, frowning as he noticed that the redhead was wearing the infamous sunglasses along with his suit, giving him a more ominous, mysterious presence. Valon didn't quite appreciate it. "Hey, take those sunnies off!" the Australian scolded. "Alister, you look like a bloke who's just taken a contract out on someone!"

The only response he got was that Alister lowered the shades slightly and raised an eyebrow at him. Obviously he didn't think he resembled a hitman—or he didn't care if he did. The less chance he had of being instantly recognized by Del Vinci's men, the better. As far as Alister was concerned, the sunglasses were staying. Besides, he quite liked them.

Mokuba was secretly watching them through the ventilation grate. As he had known, he had been forbidden to go in the building once they had discovered that he had tagged along. But he wasn't letting a technicality stop him. Seto was in danger and Mokuba wouldn't just stand by and twiddle his thumbs, not when he was certain that he could help. Quietly he began to crawl through the shaft, looking into each grate he came to and desperately hoping for a sign of his elder brother's presence. He found none, but he wasn't about to give up. The building was spacious and he'd only just begun to search.

* * *

Téa glanced about the large, decorated ballroom, feeling both awed and uneasy. The last time she and the others had gone undercover at a fancy event, things had not gone well—and she didn't have much hope that things would be any better this time. The stakes were much higher now. The cheerily lighted Christmas tree in the corner, the laughing and socializing people, and Raphael's version of some famous composer's piano concerto did nothing to ease her troubled heart.

"I don't have a good feeling about this," Yami Yugi spoke up darkly.

It was only a moment later when a gunshot rang through the room and a rough voice announced loudly that everyone would now be his hostages. Men appeared from every corner of the room, guns bared and faces grim as they forced everyone to gather in the center of the dance floor. 

Raphael looked up from the piano, his eyes narrowed. Already things were getting serious—and only more confusing. _I hope Alister and Valon are having better luck,_ he thought flatly.


	12. New Allies and Dangers

Yami Yugi looked coldly at the gunmen as they surrounded the group of frightened and confused people. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded as Téa, Yugi, Bakura, and Duke were forced to be crowded nearby. "This event is peaceful. Why are you disrupting it?"

One of the gunmen cuffed him lightly with the rifle. "We know the real reason for this thing," he said, glaring at the Pharaoh and everyone else, "and it has nothing to do with charity and goodness. The money that's collected won't even go towards helping children, as has been claimed!"

"Even if that's true, most of the people here came out of the goodness of their heart!" Téa said angrily. "Are you going to hurt them?"

The man looked at her with interest. She didn't seem surprised by the news that this wasn't actually a charity event. Who was she? She was too young to be a government agent, and so were those with her, save for possibly the taller of the two spikey-haired males. "The innocent will be spared," he told her. "We're here to help all the innocent."

The leader of the gunmen came over to Raphael, who was observing everything from near the piano. "Are you one of them?" the would-be captor demanded, shoving the gun into the tough blonde's face.

Raphael narrowed his eyes and grabbed the barrel of the gun, holding it away from him. "One of who?" he retorted.

"One of Del Vinci's gang!" was the furious reply. "We're here to stop that two-faced barbarian and his insane, cruel schemes!" The raven-haired man held out a manilla envelope. "My little brother showed this to me. It's the proof of more atrocities than you could ever imagine." Fire burned in his brown eyes as he glared at Raphael. "Del Vinci's been capturing children in order to force their parents and older siblings to keep working for him. Because my elder brother is mixed up in the mess, the madman tried to take our younger brother and sister too."

Raphael, getting a sudden suspicion, tried to reach for the envelope. "How did your brother get this information?" he asked coldly.

The gunman held it out of his grasp. "It was given to him by a young guy who was a traitor and a spy in Del Vinci's gang," he said equally as coldly. "He allowed his actions of espionage to be made known to the other gang members in order for my younger brother and sister to get away. Del Vinci's men later killed him because of it." He looked at Raphael with impatience. "And I ask you again—are you one of that wicked man's lackeys?"

Raphael studied him. He was sincere. In fact, Raphael realized, he reminded him of himself. He was also sincere and passionate about defeating evil. That was why he had joined Doom—he had thought that eventually they would be able to purify the world from wickedness and hate, though he had at last learned differently. "No," he said at last, "I'm not. The one who gave your brother that envelope is my friend. He's fighting against Del Vinci, as I am."

The other man looked at him curiously. "But he was killed!" he cried, taking notice of Raphael's use of the present tense. "My older brother saw them do it. Then they dumped the body in an alley." It made him furious. Whoever that nameless person had been, he had given his life to rescue two children he probably didn't even know. This man wished that he could make it up to him. The best way he knew how to do that was to make certain that Del Vinci got his just desserts and that all of the children already being held prisoner would be set free.

Raphael smirked a bit. "They underestimated him. He was still alive when they threw him into that alley." _But if Miruko hadn't led me to him, he would have died._

"I see." The brown eyes registered immense surprise—and gratefulness. Slowly the gun was lowered. "Our goals are the same," the man said now. "Why not join forces to stop Del Vinci?"

Raphael ordinarily might have refused. But under the circumstances, he decided that any assistance would be useful. There was no telling how much opposition they would run into on this quest, but it would probably be a lot. And so he agreed and an alliance was formed.

"There's just one condition," he said after introductions had been made.

"And what's that?" his new comrade—Ishmael—asked.

"Tell your lackeys to quit pointing their guns at everyone," Raphael grunted.

* * *

In the meantime, the part of the building that Alister's group was in was suffering a power outage, courtesy of Runihura. As a result, everyone had become separated from one another. Ishizu and Rishid were wandering down a dark corridor of empty offices. Marik went forward alone down another, his plan firmly in mind. Joey and Tristan traveled with Alister and Valon for a time before becoming lost as well. Alister, discovering that he and Valon were now by themselves, felt extremely vexed.

"They don't understand this man's vile treachery," he muttered. "There's no telling what they'll get into now." By now they had gone quite far from the room where the charity ball was being held. If any guards found strange people wandering about, it would be much harder to convince them that they belonged at the ball and had somehow got lost trying to find the right room.

"It's not like they're ankle biters, Alister," Valon retorted, feeling his way along a wall and grimly wishing he'd brought a flashlight. "I'm sure they can manage."

"That's not the point," Alister said irritably. "If the guards don't shoot on sight, they'll take them to see Del Vinci. That's what they do when something seems suspicious. I seriously doubt that they'll buy any excuse that's put before them—and neither will Del Vinci. That's when the torture will begin. Or simply quick deaths."

"I thought Raph was the paranoid, pessimistic one," Valon remarked.

Alister rolled his eyes. "You forget that I'm the one who was part of this racket for several days. I got a good idea of how they operate." He searched through the inner pockets of his tuxedo jacket, finally producing the miniature flashlight he had brought with him, and clicked it on.

Valon fell silent for a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the light. "I don't get how you even did any of that without us knowin' about it," he said. But then again, Alister was so aloof and quiet, coming and going as he pleased, that maybe it wasn't so unbelievable. It was just that Valon had supposed that Del Vinci's gang members boarded in the building, as he and the other Doom soldiers had boarded at the Doom headquarters. But apparently that had not been the case in this situation. Or at least, Alister had chosen not to board there.

"I managed it." Alister shined the flashlight into a darkened office, saw nothing of interest, and walked on. It wasn't likely that he would find where the children were until he journeyed even deeper into the building's many tunnels and recesses. Everything was set up to look completely legitimate at first glance—but behind the legitimacy were the dark secrets and mob operations that Del Vinci reveled in. He definitely recognized the winding corridors. This was positively Del Vinci's hideout, where he had been tortured nigh to death.

"And you almost croaked while you were at it," Valon frowned, following him closely. "You should have been more careful, Alister!" He didn't know the details of how Alister had been taken prisoner and tormented. That subject had not come up amid everything else. If Valon had known, he might have spoken differently.

As it was, Alister merely grunted.

* * *

As Marik was proceeding around a corner, having found another lighted area of the building, he suddenly heard a voice behind him yelling for him to stop. He swallowed hard, realizing that it was likely one of Del Vinci's men, and began to silently pray that his ruse would work—and that none of the others, especially his siblings, would be found. Then he stopped, not turning around, and calmly asked what was wanted of him.

He felt a gun press into his back. "What are you doing in here?" the guard demanded, gripping his shoulder and forcing him to turn around. "You're dressed like you're going somewhere important. But the charity ball's five floors down, you know." He shoved Marik against the wall, now pressing the gun over his heart.

"Yes," Marik said calmly, "I know. I went there first, then came looking for Mr. Giovanni himself. Or should I say, Mr. Del Vinci." He watched the guard's expression change to one of extreme shock, disbelief, and finally, suspicion.

"Who are you?!" the man yelled, looking him over. He couldn't be a policeman. He didn't even look of legal age! But that didn't mean he wasn't a possible enemy. Alister, well-known by now as the company traitor, was only twenty years of age. This boy here didn't look all that much younger than him.

"Namu Raberba," Marik said smoothly. "Namu," of course, was the alias he had used during Battle City. Not many were aware of it, but it was his actual middle name. He never used it outside of being a pseudo name, so it was the perfect choice. "Raberba" was merely a random Middle Eastern name that had come to mind due to his remembering a character on a television show who had been called that.

"Okay, _Namu_," the guard said coldly, spitting the name out as if it tasted bad, "what's your reason for knowing about Del Vinci? Not many do, you realize. At least, not many who're still alive." The gun clicked as he pressed the barrel more firmly against Marik's chest.

"Of course not," Marik replied, hoping that he appeared completely unruffled. "You're very efficient in what you do. I wouldn't expect anything less. The truth is, I've been involved with the underworld for some time now. I found out about Del Vinci's highly successful empire and I decided that I wanted to be a part of it. I could be useful to you."

The guard growled. "Why should I believe you're telling the truth? You don't look older than sixteen."

"I'm part of a crime syndicate," Marik lied, his voice steady. "I took my father's place when he was murdered by a rival gang. But it's not a very successful organization. I would find it much more enjoyable to join Del Vinci's domain."

"And what about your syndicate? Will they let you go?" The guard still looked suspicious. "Those kinda places rarely let anyone go—alive. Del Vinci's that way too. Traitors get punished severely."

"Yes," Marik said, "I know. One such traitor was killed just yesterday, wasn't it?" He paused. "As for my syndicate, they don't have to know about my new job. I can handle both."

Now the man actually laughed. "Yeah, until they find out. Then you'd be erased for sure." He sobered and then began to search Marik for any possible weapons. "If you really want to join us, you'll have to take it up with Del Vinci. If it was up to me, I wouldn't let you in. You don't seem all that useful to me. But he might have a different opinion. It depends on whether he wants to have information about your syndicate's activities or not." He didn't trust this boy at all. Del Vinci would know what to do with him. Perhaps a nice, swift death would be a good fate. They didn't have time to deal with too many distractions.

"Alright then." Marik watched him conclude his search. It was obvious that he wasn't being trusted. But he didn't expect to be. If he could just get an audience with Del Vinci, perhaps something would come of it. He might find where Seto was being kept. That was why he was here, after all—to help Mokuba find his brother. And to stop the Mafia don, of course.

"Come on." The guard shoved Marik in front of him and then immediately followed, poking the cold gun between the boy's shoulder blades once more. Marik walked carefully, his thoughts racing as he wondered what awaited him. He would have to be on guard.

* * *

Valon let out a startled cry as the wall he was leaning against suddenly caved in, sending him plunging downward into a confusing, slippery tunnel. He heard Alister yelling for him, but already he had tumbled around several corners and was now skidding toward what was probably the end of the slide. Then he crashed with a thump and a muttered Australian exclamation.

"I never did like those things," he groaned, pushing himself into a sitting position. There was a dim light overhead and he could see that he seemed to be in some sort of small, enclosed room. A short search soon produced another movable wall, which Valon quickly escaped through. He wondered how far he'd fallen and if Alister would attempt coming in after him. But he didn't wonder for very long, as something else soon caught his attention.

A small child came running from the other direction, crashing right into Valon. The boy was sobbing and clutching his arm as if it pained him. When he slammed into the Australian, he looked up at him with terror-filled eyes, as if he was afraid that Valon was the enemy.

Valon stared back in utter shock. "Hey," he exclaimed. "Where did you come from?!" He reached out to examine the child's arm, but the boy backed away and pressed himself against the wall in fear. "It's not like I'm gonna hurt you!" the brunette then scolded lightly, placing his hands on his hips.

Tears came to the child's eyes. "The mean men back there were," he sniffled. "And they're hurting lots of other kids too!" He glanced around the corner, as if expecting to see the "mean men" chasing after him.

Valon frowned, slowly coming forward. "What're they doin' that for?" he demanded.

At last the boy allowed Valon to look at his arm. "'Cause we're being used to keep our families working for this guy," he wailed softly. It didn't seem like this newcomer with the accent was going to hurt him. Thoughts of rescue began coming to his mind. But he had to wonder if it was all in vain. After all, the last person who had promised to rescue them had disappeared and there was a rumor going around that he had been killed. Maybe they'd kill this person too.

Gently Valon wrapped a clean handkerchief around the child's wounded arm, his eyes narrowed grimly. This news was extremely unsettling. Raphael had mentioned that Del Vinci was holding many children hostage, but it hadn't fully sunk in for Valon until now. "Where are the others?" he asked.

"Back there," the boy said, pointing back the way he'd come. "I got out through an air tunnel thing." Obviously he meant the ventilation system. "The mean men didn't see me, 'cause . . . 'cause. . . ." He trailed off, trembling as he remembered the horrors he'd been witnessing. "They were hurting some of the others. . . ."

Valon felt a fury building within his soul. He hated cruelty, and when it was directed towards young, defenseless children he found it even more despicable. He remembered all the times when his various foster parents had abused him and all the times he had ran away in confusion, feeling betrayed. "Oh they were, were they?" he said indignantly. "Well, we'll just see about that."

"You're gonna fight the mean men?" the boy said hopefully.

"Sure I will," Valon declared. "But first I've gotta get you somewhere safe." He straightened up and looked around. The coast seemed clear enough, but he knew how appearances could often be deceiving. Any minute someone could come around a corner with a gun and try to take the child back. . . . "What's your name?"

"Cory," the boy sniffled, carefully moving over to the Australian.

Valon was about to lead him off in a random direction when he heard a gun click behind him. "Hand the kid over or die," a cold, cruel voice ordered. Cory cried in alarm, wrapping his arms around Valon's waist.

Slowly the brunette turned to face the unwelcome newcomer. "You know, I don't care for either option," he said, and knocked the gun away with a fist. Then, before it could be picked up again, he grabbed Cory into his arms and ran blindly. Behind him he could hear the machine gun being fired again and again. Bullets flew around him, which he barely managed to dodge as he kept running. He wondered if he would make it out alive. Right now it didn't look very hopeful.


	13. Disasters

Seto felt his way around the wall of the darkened room where he was being held prisoner, mentally counting the distance he had gone. By now he had traveled around the entire space and came back to where he had began. He knew because he had marked the starting point with a crowbar and he had felt himself kick it across the floor just now. The room was quite large, with seemingly no way in or out. Seto hadn't passed any kind of door at all, which he was both puzzled and vexed about. Gozaburo, who naturally had to be an apparition, didn't need a door to torment his stepson. But Seto did need a door. He couldn't have been placed in the room at all if there wasn't an entrance somewhere. Maybe it was a secret panel in the wall. But wherever it was, Seto couldn't locate it. The room was completely dark, with no hint of light anywhere.

He hissed, feeling an injury in his leg fire up. He still couldn't remember what had happened after the fated car ride to KaibaCorp, a fact that made him extremely irritated. If he could remember, maybe he would know how to get out of this place. And maybe he would know who had taken him prisoner. Gozaburo had to have had help, perhaps from the ninjas who had been with him earlier. Obviously he couldn't be in this alone.

Again Seto began feeling his way across the room, this time searching for any possible secret panels in the walls. He knocked on the wood in various places, listening for any sound of hollowness. So far he hadn't had any luck, but he was determined to continue with his quest.

That was when he became aware of a strange and disturbing noise coming from somewhere nearby. At first he wasn't sure he was actually hearing it, but when he pressed himself against the wall and listened closely, there was no mistaking it. His eyes narrowed darkly as the cries of terror became apparent. Children were being tormented in the vicinity, perhaps further down a long corridor. Seto could also hear rough voices cursing them and their assignment. And suddenly a horrible thought came to him.

What if Mokuba was with the children? Seto couldn't remember what had been happening to him. What if Mokuba had been captured? In any case, he knew he had to get out of here and put a stop to this abomination. Children being treated cruelly was something he couldn't tolerate—though, of course, any person with a heart would feel the same. But with Seto it was quite personal, since he had suffered as a child as well. He went back to his task with even more of an intensity. He _would_ find the way out.

* * *

With the addition of Ishmael and his forces, Yami Yugi decided that they should all split into two more groups. They would cover more ground that way and there would be more of a chance that they would be able to achieve their goals.

Téa looked around nervously at the other people in the room, who were all chattering in bewilderment. "What are we going to do with everyone here?" she worried. They certainly couldn't all come with them! Most of them still didn't have the faintest idea what was even going on. In fact, Téa thought dryly, she and her friends barely knew. The one who knew better than any of them wasn't with them.

"They'll have to stay here," Seth said grimly, entering from where he had been in the lobby. (Khu had gone off to take care of something elsewhere, not finding any of this to his interest.) "The whole building's under lockdown." He crossed his arms, not liking this at all. It was more than likely that Del Vinci already knew that all of them were here and that they were coming after him. Not only would it be harder to find him, but it would be very difficult to even get out alive.

Raphael growled in frustration at this news. He looked back at the guests and then at his group, his thoughts wandering. Where were Alister and Valon? Were they safe? He had been certain that he had just heard gunshots somewhere else in the building. And it was likely that those people wouldn't give up until their targets were dead.

Suddenly he heard a gasp from behind him and he turned, only to stare into shocked violet eyes framed by dark, luscious lashes. The woman's long blonde hair tumbled over her shoulders and down her back, all the way to her hips. The purple dress she was wearing caught the glow of the overhead lights and shimmered as she moved. Raphael frowned, recognizing her instantly. And from her expression, she recognized him as well.

"You!" they both exclaimed at the same time.

Everyone else turned to stare as well. Yugi was the first to speak, his own violet eyes wide as he looked from one to the other. "Mai!" he burst out.

"What are you doing here?!" Téa asked in shock and wondered why no one had seen her earlier.

Mai ignored them and continued to gaze at Raphael. "I can't believe it," she murmured. "Never thought I'd run into you again, especially not here." She crossed her arms. "When you were playing the piano, I knew you looked familiar, but I never really thought. . . ." She shrugged. The image of a piano being played by the rough, tough Raphael she had known from Doom seemed too odd to comprehend, which was why she had initially rejected the idea that it had really been him.

Raphael just grunted. He and Mai had never really gotten along that well, and he didn't approve of Valon's crush on her. He was certain that Valon could do better. Mai, he was certain, didn't even care about Valon in the way he was longing. She only had seemed to care about herself. Even if she did care about Valon, it was only as a friend. Valon would never have the love he wanted from her. "Let's just say I wasn't expecting to see you here either," he said finally. A charity event was the last place he would have thought Mai would turn up at. _Unless she's Del Vinci's gun moll or something. . . ._

Mai shrugged. "There's a lot of places you probably wouldn't be expecting to see me," she replied. Her own childhood hadn't been very happy. When she had heard about the event this night she had decided to come donate money towards helping other children. But judging from what she had been hearing, this wasn't actually a charity ball. _But then what was it?!_

"Whatever," Raphael muttered.

Now Mai shifted uncomfortably. "So . . . are you the only one here?" She was certain Raphael would know what she meant. Where one of the trio was, the other two usually weren't far behind. And Mai had a hard time believing that the three bikers had parted ways. It was more likely that they would have stayed together, she thought. She had seen how protective Raphael was of the others. And even if they didn't admit it out loud, Mai was sure that they all felt a certain bond with each other.

Raphael turned away. "If the gunshots I heard didn't strike the other two, then no," he said matter-of-factly. He was definitely the most pessimistic of the three, though of course he didn't want to think that anything horrible had happened to Alister and Valon. But he knew it was a possibility. Either one of them—or both of them—could very well be dead right now.

Mai frowned. "Hey, why don't you tell me what's going on around here?!" she demanded.

"It's not as if you actually care about their welfare," Raphael retorted coldly, walking away.

Yugi sighed, looking after him and then turning back to Mai. "It's a long story," he said sadly, "and right now we're in the middle of trying to catch Del Vinci and rescue Kaiba. But if you want to come with us, I'll try to explain everything."

Mai moved to follow him. "Well, it's not as if I have anything better to do," she said.

* * *

Valon stopped around another corner and then entered a stairwell, Cory still in his arms. "I think we lost 'im," the Australian said, though he wasn't willing to decide that there wouldn't be any more trouble. He had been chased all over the entire floor and more than likely, was still being looked for.

"You're not gonna die, are you?" Cory asked worriedly, seeing that Valon was bleeding where a bullet had grazed him. Again he remembered the last person who had promised to set them free. He was dead now. At least, that was what everyone was saying. And Cory could well enough believe it. The people holding him and the other children captive were extremely cruel. They wouldn't have hesitated to have killed that man. And they obviously wouldn't hesitate to kill Valon, either.

"Naw, of course not," Valon replied, carefully ascending the steps and opening the door when they came to the next floor. "It's just a scratch. I've come through worse." Upon seeing the hall looked vacant, he cautiously stepped out and wandered down the corridor. But he soon discovered that it wasn't a wise move. More gunshots went off and he had to duck before he was hit.

As he darted around another corner, he ran right into Joey and Tristan. They both stared at him in disbelief and Joey was about to say something when Valon motioned for silence. A thought had come to him and he knew what should be done with Cory for the moment. "Take the kid," he whispered to the teenagers. "I'm kinda being chased by a bunch of angry assassins. He'd be safer with you." Then he could lead the hitmen away while Joey and Tristan escaped with the child. Valon was confident that he could manage things without getting injured . . . at least, not too badly.

"Are you nuts?!" Tristan hissed, accepting Cory but frowning at Valon. "They'll get you for sure!" And what was more, he and Joey had no idea where Valon had found this boy. They didn't realize the full horror of what was going on within Del Vinci's empire, just as Valon hadn't.

"No, they won't," Valon reassured him. "They can't. I'm gonna stay alive." He ruffled Cory's hair when he saw the boy looking at him worriedly and then ran back around the corner to encounter the assassins. "Hey!" he yelled then. "You lookin' for me? Come and get me!" He dodged another round of gunfire as he ran back in the opposite direction.

Joey stared after him, shaking his head. "Man, he's gonna be in for it now," he declared. "And where'd you come from anyway, kid?"

Cory was about to reply when Tristan grabbed Joey and started leading him away. "We'll have time to talk later," he stated. "Right now we should concentrate on getting away from here. That's what Valon wanted." He could hear the guns continuing to be fired around the corner and he frowned, wondering exactly what the spunky Australian had gotten himself into.

* * *

Alister wandered down another corridor, silently muttering to himself and feeling quite vexed. Now Valon had disappeared somewhere. That was the last thing that he needed right now. They needed to have stayed together. Only Alister knew more of the building's layout and of what needed to happen. With everyone separated, there was no telling what kinds of trouble they would all get into. And it might all wind up foiling Alister's plans.

As he turned the corner, he suddenly heard a gun click and felt the cold barrel being pointed at the side of his head. "Well, well, what have we here," a foul voice declared. Alister could tell that the man was smiling in a sick way. "It looks like we've got a ghost haunting the building." He pressed the gun harder against Alister's temple. "Or maybe not a ghost at all."

Alister abruptly kicked out, startling the man and sending him falling backwards, the gun clattering to the floor. Before he could get up Alister was sitting on his middle, pointing the gun at his heart. "Let's get something straight," he said icily. "I don't like guns pointed at my head." He clicked the revolver on purpose, wanting to make his captive nervous. "And I don't like Del Vinci's racket. Before this night is over, he's going to pay for his crimes."

The assassin merely leered at him. "And what will you have?" he asked. "The satisfaction of knowing you put him away, of course . . . but you'll be alone. Your friends will all be dead, killed by him. And it will be your fault for getting involved in things that didn't concern you."

Alister's gray eyes flashed with anger and his hands shook at the lackey's words. But he wouldn't allow himself to believe it. He couldn't believe it. His friends weren't dead. They would be able to outsmart Del Vinci. At least, he had to hope so. But he knew that he'd been fearing that they would all end up dying. And it was highly possible that they would. But he wasn't going to let it happen if he could possibly help it. "This does concern me," was all he would say.

"One of your friends is already dead." The hitman's lips curled in an evil sneer, enjoying the look of sheer alarm registering on Alister's face. "A short, spunky fella. I killed him myself before I found you. But before he died, he turned against you. He told me where I could find you."

Alister regarded him with disgust. "He doesn't know where I am," he said coldly. "So since you're lying about that, I'm going to assume you're lying about him being dead. And now I'm tired of listening to your drivel." With that he struck the man harshly on the head with the gun's handle, rendering him unconscious.

After he locked the assassin in a closet, Alister continued down the hallway, feeling uneasy. What if Valon really was dead? He was so impulsive, rushing into things that he shouldn't. . . . Maybe he had rushed into too much. But Alister had to believe that wasn't so. He had to believe that Valon and Raphael were both safe and that all of them would be able to leave this building.

When he stepped in a puddle of blood at the corridor's end, however, his uneasiness only increased.

* * *

Del Vinci was busy going over papers in his office when Marik was brought in. The crime boss looked up, regarding the Egyptian boy with only mild interest at first. Marik looked back steadily, no trace of fear in his lavender eyes. _Well, _Del Vinci thought to himself, _this is highly interesting._ "Who is this?" he demanded aloud, looking to his henchman who was coming in after Marik and pointing a gun at his back.

"I'm Namu Raberba," Marik answered, stepping forward. "I want to join your empire." At Del Vinci's curious request for an explanation, the boy gave him the same story that he had given to the lackey. He watched the crime boss's expression closely, though none of his thoughts were betrayed. Marik couldn't tell whether he was being believed or not, though he rather doubted it. He knew he would have to stay on his guard. There was no telling what would be done to him.

Del Vinci leaned back when Marik finished speaking, lacing his fingers together. "This is all very interesting, Namu," he began, feeling quite amused. He hadn't heard such a strange tale in a long while. But he was most anxious to drop the proverbial bomb on the Egyptian. He had only been playing along with him. He knew the truth. "Or should I say, Marik." He sneered. "You're young Mokuba Kaiba's best friend. Didn't you realize I'd be smart enough to find out everyone who is close to a Kaiba?"

"I knew his story was nuts!" the lackey yelled. "He's a spy. We should kill him now."

But Del Vinci waved him off. "Let's hear what he has to say for himself," he replied smoothly.

Marik swallowed hard, certain that his palms were clammy and cold. He hadn't expected this, but he had to find a way out of it. He hated to say what he was about to, but he knew it was really false . . . and that saying it might be his only hope. "You got me," he said with a slow smirk of his own, "I'm Marik Ishtar. But . . . I don't really care about Mokuba Kaiba or any of the others. I'm willing to sell them out. It doesn't matter to me. I just want power and money."

"You're so cold, aren't you." Del Vinci stood up and walked around Marik, who noticed from looking out the window behind them that they were up extremely high and that a few floors down from the level they were currently on was a part of the building that jutted out from the rest, its roof mostly a large skylight. "I imagine that you never really wanted to be Mokuba's friend—it was all just an act."

"That's right." Marik hated saying these things. But at least Mokuba wasn't around to hear him. He hoped so, anyway.

Del Vinci smirked, turning to his henchman. "Kill him," he ordered.

The assassin lunged, only too happy to do so. Quickly Marik dodged and they wound up engaged in vicious mortal combat, the gun between them. It went off, first into the floor, then into the plate glass window—shattering it—before hitting Del Vinci's minion in the arm. He hissed in pain, grabbing Marik tighter as the boy struggled. Then abruptly the window was there in front of them and neither one was able to stop their descent. They plunged out through the glass and down, flailing in midair for several horrifying seconds before both crashing through the skylight.


	14. The Treachery Continues

Seto looked up in disbelief at the sound of breaking glass. "What the. . . ." Suddenly light was flooded into the room from the moon and stars outside and he could make out two bodies plummeting toward the hard floor. Shielding himself from the flying particles, he watched in shock as one of the forms hit the floor with a sickening thud. The other crashed onto a table and then fell on top of the body now laying prone. Seto could hear a weak moan from one of them. Carefully picking his way around the glass, the young businessman made his way over to them.

When he came closer, the moonlight shone in nearby and he could faintly see the soft blonde hair and the golden jewelry that were Marik's trademarks. "Marik?!" he burst out, appalled, staring at the dazed Egyptian boy who was on top. How would Marik have gotten here? Who was the other person with him, the one sprawled on the floor and badly bleeding? And if Marik was here, was all of Yugi's gang around?

Marik moaned again and tried to get up, but found himself collapsing back across the hitman's body. Vaguely he was aware of the voice calling to him and he opened one eye, looking up and trying to adjust to the dim light. "Kaiba?" he managed to ask. If he wasn't imagining things, then Seto Kaiba was truly alive and Marik hadn't accidentally killed him by hitting him with his motorcycle. He wouldn't have to suffer thinking he'd taken Mokuba's brother away from him! The thought was immeasurably comforting.

"What are you doing here?" Seto demanded, crossing his arms and looking at the scene with a mixture of astonishment and incredulity.

"I don't know," Marik retorted, his vision spinning from everything that had taken place. "I suppose my fight with Del Vinci's assassin landed us here." He looked down at the gangster, seeing that the man was still breathing. "What are _you _doing here, Kaiba?" He clenched his fists. "I thought . . . I thought you were dead and that I'd caused it."

Seto grunted. "Well, as you can see, I'm not and you didn't." He half-turned, but continued to regard Marik and the assassin as he attempted to determine how badly hurt they were. "Apparently I'm here as my stepfather's prisoner," he added bitterly.

Marik stared in him in confusion. "But we're at Del Vinci's company," he said slowly, explaining at Seto's demand about the Mafia don's identity as CEO of Julio Industries. Seto's eyes narrowed darkly at this news, and at the following news of how everyone was there for various reasons. "We came to rescue you," the Egyptian concluded, "and to put a stop to all of Del Vinci's madness." By now he had crawled to the floor and was tending to the hitman's gunshot wound.

Seto was furious. "I can't believe this!" he growled, kneeling down beside Marik after kicking several shards of glass aside. "He was right under my nose the entire time and I couldn't even find him!" This was maddening! And strangely, he remembered Burt Thorton's fear that Del Vinci had gotten into the toy business. It almost looked as though he had been right. After all, who would think to look for an international criminal—wanted for several counts of attempted murder—in a toy factory?

"Right now, let's just concentrate on collecting the others and catching him now that we have found him," Marik replied. "But in the meantime, I'm not sure what to do with this man. I can't tell if he's badly hurt or not, and I don't see a telephone around."

Seto ignored that for the moment. "Mokuba didn't come with you, did he?" he asked darkly, remembering the children's screams he had heard just a few moments before. Seto knew how Mokuba hated to be left behind, especially if there was worry that he, Seto, was somewhere hurt. He found it hard to believe that the child wouldn't have found a way to come along now.

Marik blinked at this question. "No," he answered slowly, though he also understood what Seto did. "Unless he snuck in somehow when none of us realized it." He frowned deeply at this thought. As he exchanged a look with Seto, they both realized that that must be exactly what had happened. It only made sense.

Now Marik looked around the room, still frowning. "I don't suppose you've found a way out of this room," he said.

"No," Seto responded, glancing at the ceiling. "However, you've found a way in. If all else fails, we can get out through that. But we have to find where those children are." He could still hear their screams in his mind. It was haunting and horrible, and was too reminiscent of his own past with Gozaburo.

Marik clenched his fist. "I know," he agreed quietly.

The two teenagers were searching through the room when the assassin regained consciousness. He glared at them both hatefully but made no attempt to get up, as he knew he was too weak. When both Marik and Seto found a door and fell upon it with all of their weight to break it open, and then finally succeeded, the hitman could do nothing to stop them.

* * *

As Ishizu and Rishid traveled down the deserted corridor, worrying about their precious brother, a silhouette stumbled out of a doorway and into their path.

Ishizu gasped in surprise, but remained unafraid. "Who is here?" she called steadily, briefly wondering in alarm if it was Marik and he was wounded.

"Officer Valesquez," was the astonishing reply. As the figure stepped into the light, they could see that, indeed, it was Gabrielle. She was clutching her chest as she staggered forward, obviously badly wounded, and both Ishtar siblings hastened to help her.

"What has happened?" Rishid demanded, unable to forget Duke's tale of what occurred in the squad car. Was this Gabrielle the one who had attacked Duke or the one who had helped them on many occasions? So far there was no indication.

"I shot myself," she muttered. "Something was controlling me and that was the only way I could think of to stop it. Then I woke up here."

Rishid frowned deeply. "You'd best sit down," he remarked, leading her to a lone chair sitting to the side of an office door. When Gabrielle was settled, he and Ishizu examined her wound, with only the dim glow of a dying bulb overhead.

"Has the bullet been removed?" Ishizu asked, finding the unbandaged wound and trying to see if there was any hint of remaining lead. Gabrielle had torn off a piece of her uniform to use as a makeshift bandage and as something to stop the bleeding. It seemed to have worked for the most part.

"I don't know," Gabrielle responded. "I certainly didn't remove it, but I suppose it's possible that someone here did." She glanced around with narrowed eyes. "Why are the both of you here? This isn't a good place for civilians to be roaming about."

Rishid sighed, shaking his head. "We came to attempt rescuing Seto Kaiba," he replied. "He was abducted and we believe he may have been brought here." He stood by while Ishizu tended to the wound, deciding it would be better for a female to handle it. Anxiously he cast his gaze about, wondering again where Marik was and if the poor boy had gotten himself into trouble. What was more, there had been no sign of any of the others. _Where could they all be?_ He could only pray that they were still among the living and that they were safe.

A footfall brought all three of them to attention. Six eyes turned to stare at the corner, around which came Joey, Tristan, and an unknown child. The newcomers were all astounded at the scene before them.

"Whoa!" Tristan exclaimed, his eyes widening. "Gabrielle?!" Then a bit of nervousness overtook him and he shifted uneasily, moving closer to Joey while still holding the trusting Cory. "She's . . . uh . . . she's. . . ."

"Not gonna go psycho on us, right?" Joey finished, looking equally as nervous.

Gabrielle smirked dryly. "Well," she replied, "I suppose that's up to the entity that chose to take over my mind." Yes, this was the Gabrielle they remembered. She had to admit, she got a certain enjoyment out of the way Joey and Tristan exchanged worried glances.

* * *

Valon swerved to the side, hearing a bullet whistle past him and embed itself into the doorframe. "Crikey, that one almost got me," he muttered, doing a fast cartwheel away from a hitman that was lunging forward. The Australian knew he'd have to be careful. He'd already been grazed once. The chances weren't very good that another time he would also only be grazed.

In the next moment he let out a cry of pain as he was clubbed harshly on the side of his head with the barrel of a gun. He fell to the right, dazed, but struggled to blink away the stars that were gathering in his line of vision. It wasn't easy in the least. It took all of his strength and willpower not to fall unconscious. And he could hear his enemies starting to gather around him.

"Maybe we should take him to Del Vinci," one of them suggested. "He'd know how to handle this riffraff." There was the sound of a cruel laugh. "I heard his hitman knocked a spy out the window and then fell out with him."

Valon swallowed hard, straightening up and placing a hand on the wall for support. This news wasn't to his liking. Who would that person have been? He tried not to think of it being Alister or Raphael. Surely it wouldn't have been either of them! But the odds were great that it had been someone in their party. It could very well have been one of his close friends.

"It looks like he's recovering," the second one remarked, reaching out to grab Valon. Instantly he received a harsh kick in the stomach.

"I don't appreciate being talked around," the brunette announced coldly, looking at the remaining assassins and trying to ignore the pounding pain in his head.

"Oh forgive me," the man smirked, lunging forward and about to pull the trigger of his gun. Again Valon reacted quickly, knocking the weapon away and then taking it into his own hands. Then he swiftly slammed the handle against his attacker's forehead, sending him crashing to the floor. The other gangsters, seeing that their prey now held a weapon, cursed vilely and tried to determine their next course of action.

But they weren't quick enough to prevent Valon darting away from them and continuing to point the gun their way. "Drop your weapons!" he yelled firmly, his own gun clicking.

"Do what he says," one of them growled, seeing that Valon was near a balcony. "There's more than one way to skin a cat." A wicked plan was forming in his mind, and he could see that another hitman coming from another direction had the very same idea.

Trusting their associate's judgment, they all let their revolvers and machine guns clatter to the floor. Valon watched this as he slowly backed away. "Alright now, that's good," he called. "Just keep standing there and don't move a muscle." Even he knew he wouldn't be able to take them all on himself. His best hope was to get away safely and try to find his way back to some of the others.

That was when he suddenly felt a sharp pain slam into his back. The Australian gasped in agony, realizing that he had just been stabbed. While he was still too stunned to fight back, the assassin withdrew his weapon of death and kicked Valon into the glass of the balcony. It shattered, sending him plunging downward to finally crash, motionless, on the next floor.

Valon's murderer turned to face the others, an evil smirk twisting his features. "That," he stated, "is the end of one of our problems." The others concurred.

* * *

It was Yugi who noticed that Duke Devlin had gone missing. The first group was already heading out and Yugi's group was about to follow suit when he discovered they were missing one raven-haired teenager who wore a die in his left ear.

"Has anyone seen Duke?!" the violet-eyed boy exclaimed in concern.

"Why, no!" Bakura said in astonishment. "He was supposed to be with us, wasn't he?" He looked out from behind silvery bangs, trying to find any sign of the wayward game shop owner.

"He was supposed to be," Téa moaned, "but he's not." She clenched a fist in frustration. Why did everything have to go wrong? It was bad enough that they were wandering through a building owned by a madman and expecting that they could actually rescue Seto Kaiba from his clutches and then apprehend his captor. Now it looked as though some of their party was disappearing.

Up ahead, Raphael growled at this news. "That's all we need," he muttered.

Mai glared at him. "Look," she said coldly, "I know we don't see eye to eye, but I want to know how Valon's doing and I expect you to give me a straight answer!" It was true that she didn't love Valon romantically. But that didn't mean she didn't care about him in some way. He had been a good friend to her during her time with Doom, though she hadn't properly acknowledged his efforts. Indeed, she had often treated him quite poorly. His friends had a perfect right to be disgusted and to not wish to tell her anything about him. She didn't expect anything less. But she was stubborn and persistent and determined to find something out.

Raphael gave her a hard look. "If you're so eager to find out, you'll just have to come along," he retorted. _Because, frankly, I don't know how Valon's doing right now!_

It was then that he heard an odd creaking sound right over his head. "What the. . . ." He looked up, staring into the darkened ventilation grate, and then suddenly let out a cry of surprise as a small, living missile shot out of the opening and crashed right on top of him. He stumbled back, instinctively reaching up to investigate what had fallen down.

Mokuba was frantically gripping Raphael's tuxedo jacket, his eyes shut tightly. Now he opened them, blinking sheepishly at the blonde man. "Uh, sorry?" he said, swallowing hard and trying to smile innocently. _If only the grate hadn't given out, this wouldn't have happened!_

Raphael frowned, lifting Mokuba up and setting him on the floor. "You're not supposed to be here," he grunted. But somehow it didn't surprise him that the child was here anyway. He was determined not to be left behind.

Mokuba glared up at him. "It's my brother who Del Vinci has!" he declared. "Where else should I be but here?!"

Mai smirked. "Well, you've got spunk, kiddo," she remarked.

Raphael was simply frustrated. He knew that now Mokuba would have to come with them. The boy couldn't leave the building and he wouldn't be safe if he wandered around by himself. And so, while the group had lost track of one member, they quickly had gained another.

* * *

Alister gazed at the puddle of blood with disgust and concern. Whose was it? His gaze drifted upward, as if hoping to find the answer, but all he saw was a badly shattered glass balcony. Indeed, as he looked at the floor again, he could see shards of crystal scattered about, both in the blood and on the linoleum tiles. Obviously someone had experienced a bad accident . . . if it was an accident at all. Perhaps whatever had happened to this unfortunate soul had been extremely deliberate.

Slowly Alister walked forward, discovering in alarm that he was following a trail of blood across the floor. Up ahead, just around a corner, he could see a limp hand. He hastened over, only to find the body of one of his closest friends laying motionless. The redhead felt dizzy at the sight of Valon sprawled on the floor, most likely dead, blood pooling around him from the stab wound on his back and from various other injuries on his arms and legs.

Alister sank to his knees, reaching out to take hold of Valon's wrist and check for the pulse that he was certain he wouldn't find. When he didn't find it, he shut his eyes tightly in despair. Slowly he removed his sunglasses out of respect for one who had been his true friend, studying him with clouded gray eyes. "This," he said quietly, "is why you weren't supposed to get involved." Tears pricked his eyes, but he held them back. Weeping for his fallen comrade would not help anything. But that didn't mean his heart wasn't aching.


	15. The Children

As Alister continued to regard the certain corpse, he knew he could not leave it here where the unmerciful, desecrating gang members could again get their hands on it and do Heaven knows what. One thing that had always haunted him about Miruko's death was that the small body had never been recovered. Without a body to bury in a cemetery where he could visit and pay his last respects, Alister had felt that there had never been closure. Valon—and Raphael—were the closest things to a family that he had now. They deserved every respect at death that he had wanted to give his brother.

Carefully he reached out, placing one arm around the brunette's shoulders and the other hand under his knees, lifting him into his arms. Slowly he got to his feet, feeling numb. Valon wasn't hard to carry at all. He was actually quite light in Alister's firm grip. Alister stared down at him, certain that the Australian couldn't have even been completely out of his teens. He had been too young to die. And no one should have to die in this way, the victim of cruel and wicked monsters masquerading as human beings. Alister had wanted so badly to keep Valon and Raphael from ever getting involved in this at all. But still they had. And Valon was still dead. All of Alister's determination hadn't stopped it from happening.

Purposefully he stepped forward, his eyes narrowed as he struggled to hold back the angry crystalline drops. If he'd kept a better watch over Valon . . . if he had warned him about the trapdoors and false walls . . . if they had just been able to stay together, maybe this wouldn't have happened. As it was, he felt as though he had lost a second brother. Despite the fact that he and Valon were constantly arguing, they were always there for each other when times were rough. But Alister hadn't been here for him this time. He couldn't help thinking that if he had been, Valon would still be alive. If they'd both been fighting the goons, they might have triumphed.

A weak moan brought him to attention almost immediately. He looked down at Valon again, but could see no visible change in his condition. However, he knew what he had heard. And he wasn't about to ignore it. But he frowned slightly as he sank to the floor and laid Valon's body down on its side. Had he been that careless in his observations of Valon's death? He was certain he hadn't been.

Carefully the redhead bent over his friend, again checking his vital signs. This time he found a weak pulse, as well as light breathing. Valon was back . . . or possibly had never left. Alister drew his own breath in sharply, immediately going about tending to the brunette's stab wound. _You survived again. _This wasn't the first time Valon had been injured to the point of death or had been in danger that could have resulted in his becoming a fatality. Alister couldn't help remembering back to shortly after Doom had disbanded, when he and Raphael had found Valon in quite a bit of life-threatening trouble. . . .

As Alister worked to stop the bleeding, Valon's blue eyes fluttered open. "What happened?" the Australian asked weakly, still trying to focus. He jerked, feeling human hands applying pressure on his back. If he could, he would reach out and slap the unwelcome meddler for causing his back to hurt worse. But he was too weary to move. The last thing he remembered was falling through the balcony and then weakly trying to crawl away after a moment of being completely dazed. But he had hit his head so hard that he had soon passed into unconsciousness from the blow and from the other pain going throughout his body.

"You almost left," Alister replied flatly. The wound didn't seem very deep, he observed, so he assumed it hadn't been made by a very big knife. It was bleeding quite badly, however, and he wasn't sure if Valon had lost so much blood that he needed to worry. He only knew that he refused to be responsible for the death of someone else he cared about. Somehow he would get the bleeding to stop.

"'Left'?" Valon repeated in confusion, remembering falling down the odd shute. That seemed ages ago now. . . .

"As in, you almost died," Alister elaborated. He relaxed as he realized the bleeding had slowed greatly. Carefully he set about constructing a temporary bandage until he could find some kind of first aid kit.

Valon was stunned at this. He probed Alister for details and was finally informed that Alister had found him laying on the floor without a pulse. The redhead had then determined that the only thing he could do was to carry the body away.

The Australian now smirked in amusement. "I guess," he joked, "that was the first time you ever held a guy in your arms."

Alister grunted. "And the last," he retorted.

* * *

Khu cornered Runihura on the roof of Julio Industries. The wild Egyptian was stretched out on his side casually, his right hand propped to his head, and seemed to not care a bit about the snow all around him. He was just sending a bolt of electricity at the skyscraper's outside fusebox when the zealot approached.

"I wondered if you would join the party," Runihura remarked calmly.

Khu was definitely not calm. He clutched his staff, his blood boiling. "So it's right back to your normal tricks you go!" he cried indignantly. But of course he shouldn't have been surprised. Runihura's very name meant "destroyer." He was only doing what was likely all he had ever known. Khu found that it was impossible to even picture Runihura as a child. It seemed almost as if he must have always existed as an adult, bent on calamity and distress.

"Well, why not?" Runihura retorted with a shrug. "I quite enjoy what I do. And it's not as if you're really that concerned. You're just angry to think that you were so foolish as to unlock the code that imprisoned me in the Eternal Sleep. If it had been someone else who had done so, you wouldn't care less." His eyes glinted as he saw that he had hit a nerve. Khu wasn't the type to meddle in business that wasn't his. And Runihura was certain that if Khu hadn't been directly involved in his release, he wouldn't care what damage was caused. In ancient Egypt Khu had probably actually wanted Runihura to win, when he had been Pharaoh Atemu's first opponent.

"I should have realized you wouldn't help me!" Khu bemoaned, cuffing at Runihura with the end of his staff. "But now I want to settle this. Fight me!"

Lazily Runihura gripped the staff and shoved it back. If it hadn't been made of wood, he would have channeled electricity into it. But as it was, that action wouldn't have done any good. "You against me? You wouldn't stand a chance. Not even Shadi, the guardian of the Millennium Items, could win in a fight with me. And you! Look at you! You don't even possess any magic powers, save for what's in your pathetic staff. I could overpower you in an instant if I wanted." But he didn't want to—not yet. It would be so easy that the thought bored him. Right now he was more interested in keeping track of the group that was inside the building.

Khu's short temper was almost at its boiling point. He gripped the staff tighter, his violet eyes aflame with indignation and rage. Runihura only yawned at this sight.

"Your problem is that you run amuck with your emotions, instead of allowing yourself to take command of and channel them into your works." The Destroyer rose now, stretching and preparing to abandon this scene. "I am successful in what I do because I let my emotions work with my powers. You fail—and have always failed—because your emotions overpower your common sense." He smirked, enjoying the range of expressions Khu was displaying. It was so easy to rile him, especially if such truths were being spoken. "That's how you can get yourself destroyed, as well as bringing destruction elsewhere. It's suicide, really."

"But you wouldn't know that from personal experience," Khu snarled. "You've never died." He remembered the many times he and the other guards had attempted to do just that when the madman had been practically ripping Egypt apart. In particular, Khu remembered when his spear traveled straight through Runihura's body. That should have killed him in one swift motion. But instead the other Egyptian had merely doubled over in apparent pain before managing to pull the spear out of his torso. Then, without warning, any trace of wounds were gone and he was perfectly normal once again.

To his stunned surprise, Runihura leaned closer and studied Khu so intently that the violet-eyed man felt compelled to step backward. "Haven't I?" came the gravelly voice as a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning signaled their owner's departure. When Khu's vision was clear, Runihura was gone, leaving him with only that cryptic and strange statement to reflect on.

* * *

Duke was having his own strange experience. He had become separated from everyone else in the ballroom when he had idly climbed onto the stage where Raphael had been performing. The part of floor he had been standing on suddenly had given way, sending him spiraling down a long tunnel before crashing down into a room that he guessed was usually unoccupied. It was dark and bare—or so he thought—but when he heard a voice he knew the space wasn't empty at the moment.

"Who's there?!" It was a voice filled with terror and surprise. Duke started, surprised himself, and started searching for the small flashlight he had opted to carry.

"I think I could ask the same question," he exclaimed, finding the light and training the beam on a beautiful, elderly face. His eyes widened in confusion. This was one of the missing persons. He recognized her from the picture they had shown on the nightly news.

"Emma," was the equally confused reply. She had been expecting one of her captors when the loud crash had startled her out of a weary sleep. Instead the person seemed as shocked to see her as she was to hear his voice. "What are you doing here, young man?"

Duke shined the light on himself for a moment so that the woman could see her visitor. Then he moved the beam around the enclosed area, wanting to get a better idea of where they were and if they were alone. They seemed to be, and also, there seemed to be no way out except the way he had come. He frowned, slowly lowering himself onto a crate he had discovered. "I just dropped in through the ceiling," he replied at last. "Believe me, ma'am, I'm as confused as you are."

Emma sighed, shaking her head. "Oh dear. Well, you must be another of Del Vinci's prisoners," she remarked at last. "He's been keeping such young people hostage these days!" A frown graced her kind features. "It wasn't that long ago when another young man just a few years older than you was being kept here. I'm afraid he was in bad condition by then, because they would have him stay here after their inhumane beatings. When he wasn't unconscious, he was delirious and crying out for his younger brother. It was tragic to watch." She clasped her hands on her lap. Indeed, she had barely been able to stand listening to Alister's desperate pleas for Miruko not to leave him. She had tried to help the poor youth as best as she could, but her efforts, though sincere, had done little to quell his distress.

Duke frowned as well. "I'm sure it was," he agreed. Another inspection of the room with the flashlight revealed blood splattered in various locations on the floor and the lower parts of the walls. "But isn't there another way out of there? They couldn't have sent an injured man through the ceiling." _Could they?_ Duke wouldn't doubt that they would be that treacherous, but if they wanted the man to remain alive for the moment, sending him through the ceiling after already being beaten could have killed him.

"There's a panel in the wall," Emma informed him, "but it's invisible on this side at least and I can't remember where it is!" She did, however, point out which wall the panel was on and Duke set about trying to feel around for it, though Emma said that she had already tried many times and failed.

"Well, I'm going to find it," Duke vowed, laying the flashlight on the crate to shine on the wall he was examining.

That was when the panel was abruptly shoved open. Duke, whose hands had been right over the spot, was thrown back from the sudden pressure. He glared suspiciously at the intruders from his position on the floor. Obviously they were some of Del Vinci's lackeys. And Duke had a feeling that both he and Emma were going to be in very serious trouble now. He was right.

One of the men laughed. "It looks like it worked," he remarked, pointing at Duke. "We got him to fall through the trapdoor. His days of trying to break up the drug ring is over! Now he and the old lady can both die and no one will be the wiser than Del Vinci!"

* * *

In the meantime, Yugi's group had traveled down a very long corridor by now and was following the sound of a bone-chilling scream of fright. Raphael's eyes were narrowed coldly. He was certain that it was children screaming, especially after what Alister had told him in secret, and he was less and less thrilled with Mokuba's presence as they went deeper into the building. No child belonged in this den of abominations. Mokuba should have stayed at his home, where he would have (Raphael hoped) been safer.

"Where is it coming from?!" Téa cried nervously, looking around desperately as if to find the source. The cries were just about to drive her mad. They needed to find who was in trouble before they were hurt even worse!

"It's louder down this way," Mokuba declared, taking off running to the left.

"Mokuba, wait!" Yugi cried in alarm, reaching out in vain to grab the child. If the younger Kaiba brother was spotted by Del Vinci's minions, they could think he was one of the imprisoned hostages trying to escape. Or worse . . . they might realize exactly who he was.

Luckily for Mokuba, he didn't run into any problems. On the contrary, he met up with Joey, Tristan, Ishizu, Rishid, Gabrielle, and Cory, who were all just coming out of a nearby stairwell. The raven-haired boy stepped back and blinked in surprise at the sight. When Yugi and the other caught up, they all did as well.

After explanations were exchanged, Cory proceeded to direct them on to the room where the other children were being held captive. The screams grew louder and more frantic as the group finally approached a large balcony overlooking the treacherous sight.

Children of all ages were scattered about the area, which was crowded with crates and henchmen. Some of the children were huddled in corners, while others were attacking their captors as best as they could and still others were being attacked. Most all of them were crying and wailing, which the cruel men harshly reprimanded them for. Téa, Yugi, and Bakura could barely stand to watch, though all were appalled and horrified. Raphael clenched his fists so fiercely that he almost drew blood. Ishizu's eyes glistened with unshed tears. For both her and Rishid, all they could think of was how their father had cruelly hurt Marik and Rishid in the past.

"Alright!" Joey cried indignantly. "Let's go down there and show them just what we think of this!" He slammed his fist into his palm, his brown eyes narrowed with outrage. There was a girl hiding in a corner who reminded him a lot of Serenity. The mere thought of his sister ever falling victim to such horror was enough to enrage him extremely. And when he looked down at all of the terrified children, he was reminded of when he and Serenity had been children and he had tried to protect her from their father's drunken rages. The poor girl had been confused and hadn't understood why their father wasn't like other fathers.

"Wait, Joey," Atemu admonished firmly. "If we are rash, we might only bring more harm to the children." He studied the room below them carefully, trying to determine how they even would get down there. The door was obviously on the next floor down. But if they tried to descend from their current location, it would perhaps be even more of a surprise and they would be more likely to have the advantage.

That was when several things happened at once. A tremor shook the building fiercely, causing everyone to struggle with remaining upright. Mai, who was clutching at the balcony railing, her eyes narrowed, suddenly lost her balance and started to tumble overboard. She gave a scream of alarm, desperately clutching the railing. Raphael, who was closest to her, had no choice but to try to rescue her. Then a second tremor, more powerful than the first, began. In the midst of it all, approaching footsteps could be heard.


	16. The Rescue Begins

Everyone tensed at the sound of the footsteps. Perhaps some of Del Vinci's men were on patrol—or even Del Vinci himself. Or maybe it was the missing members of their original group. As the tremor caused all of them to crash to the floor—including Raphael, who was still holding onto Mai (and not being very pleased about it)—two shadows fell across them.

"What in Heaven's name?" came Marik's odd voice just before both he and Seto also lost their balance and fell down amongst them. It seemed that there was a grand earthquake that was responsible for this, but no one could figure out how an earthquake could have come out of nowhere as it had.

Mai, getting her bearings back and realizing that she was sprawled next to Raphael on the floor—and grabbing him desperately—soon let go and glared at him with narrowed violet eyes. "I can take care of myself!" she grumped.

Raphael looked at her in disgust. "Fine," he retorted. "You can prove it the next time you're falling off a balcony." _Yeah, she hasn't changed. She's still the same ungrateful little. . . . I don't know what Valon sees in her._

Mokuba quickly recovered from the shock of the earthquake and let out a delighted, joyous cry of "Big brother!" as he ran into Seto's arms and hugged him tightly. "I was so worried about you, Seto," he whispered as the older boy returned the embrace. "I didn't even know if you were . . . if you were. . . ." He trailed off, unable to finish, and just shut his eyes tightly.

Seto smiled softly, holding the child close. Though he was appalled by the sounds of the frightened children coming from below them, he couldn't deny how grateful he was that Mokuba was not numbered among the captured. For him in this moment, none of the others around him were there. It was just him and Mokuba.

Atemu had other concerns. Most certainly the gangsters beating the children would have heard Mai's cry of panic when she had been toppling over the side. And if they had, they would send someone to investigate. They all needed to be on guard and wait for a few moments before proceeding. If someone did come to see what was going on, then they would know which direction they should go in. He expressed this to the others, who agreed to wait for a short period of time but not any longer than ten minutes—if they could stand listening to the children for that long. Their cries had only increased, becoming all the more chilling.

Ishizu and Rishid, meanwhile, were reuniting with Marik. Though he tried to gloss over what had happened to him before he had found Seto, his elder siblings knew that it had definitely been a life-and-death situation. They embraced him gently but firmly, immeasurably grateful that he was safe.

* * *

Duke was not very pleased with the news that he had been purposely brought to this place to be held as a prisoner. And he was highly confused as to why Emma was being held prisoner as well. He glared at his captors as they continued to laugh maliciously. "Oh really?" he retorted to their remarks of how he and the elderly woman would die. "Well, I can understand why Del Vinci would want to be rid of me, but what has she done to his empire?" As he spoke, he tried to inconspicuously reach into his pocket for some stray dice.

The man who had burst through the panel gave a cruel sneer. "She's done nothing. Her only crime is being a mother of one of our unfortunate cohorts," he replied. "That's why she's being held hostage here. Well, that and also the fact that any siblings he had are already dead, so they can't be captured instead."

Duke was stunned. He looked over at Emma, who merely looked sadly at the floor and refused to speak to these cruel men, and then felt a burst of outrage and anger. "And they were killed by you two, I suppose," he frowned, feeling his fingers close around the sought dice.

"Maybe," the second man said with a shrug. "Or maybe by some of our associates." He took a step forward, whereupon Duke rose as well and didn't look pleased.

The boy flicked his dice, one catching the first man in the eye and the second being caught by the other man, who smirked at Duke as if to say, _This is all you've got to fight with?_ But Duke was grabbing Emma and running through the panel before they could be stopped.

"It's no use!" the woman cried as Duke wrestled with the panel to close it again, all while the men shoved against it on the other side. "We're stranded. We'll never be able to make it out of here." She watched worriedly as the boy continued to push feverishly against the wood and then narrowed her eyes in determination, coming over to assist.

One of the men managed to get his hand through the closing panel, a revolver clutched firmly in it. But Duke and Emma continued to frantically try to get the opening sealed up, hoping that their enemy would have to drop his weapon and pull his hand back. When that didn't seem forthcoming, Duke tried to knock the gun away and then got into a lethal arm-wrestling contest, all while Emma had to struggle with the panel herself so that both men wouldn't come barreling through. It all happened in a matter of moments, but at the time it seemed agonizingly long and stretched out. At last Duke delivered a harsh karate chop, releasing the weapon and causing the hand to fall back—and the panel was closed. After dropping a wooden bar down across the door—a wooden bar that was obviously there for that purpose—Duke and Emma turned to flee down the hallway they were faced with.

But their problems were far from over. As the tremors shook the building without warning, they both lost their balance and tumbled into a dark stairwell. Then they immediately heard a steady stream of cursing in another language and Duke realized that they had just crashed into Yami Bakura.

* * *

Alister and Valon weren't extremely pleased with the earthquakes either. Valon was still dizzy from the two knocks on the head he had taken, as well as being pained by the stab wound in his back. At the moment Alister was making certain that Valon didn't have any glass in his flesh—as he had just removed a painful piece from his friend's shoulder—while Valon sat on the floor impatiently.

"Come on, Alister! I'm not sliced in that many places!" the brunette complained as Alister checked along his left arm.

Alister grunted. "If the glass is left in your flesh, it could get pushed down into your bloodstream and cause internal damage," he remarked flatly, not abandoning the examination until it was successfully completed. Valon watched him with a sigh and an occasional wince when a piece of glass was found.

"So . . . you really do care, don't you?" Valon remarked as the redhead bandaged the various cuts and scrapes. It felt good to know that he had friends, especially after having no one to care about him for years.

Alister tied another strip of cloth. "Do you think I do?"

Valon smiled lopsidedly. "Yeah," he admitted. "I think you do." Then he paused, pondering over his choice of words. "Naw . . . I know you do." Alister had risked his life more than once to protect Valon and Raphael. He was often aloof and apparently cold, but for the Australian that facade had been shattered. "We're chums, Alister," he proclaimed now.

Alister looked at him, then slowly nodded. "You're right," he agreed. "We're friends." He couldn't deny that he was relieved and grateful that Valon was alright. The time when he had thought the brunette was dead had been agonizing and horrible. He hadn't wanted to think that he hadn't been able to be there when his comrade had needed him.

Valon looked about. "So . . . where do we go now?" he asked as Alister finished. He flexed his arm, testing his ability to move it. Alister had done an expert job of mending the wounds. He suddenly had the idle thought of wondering if Alister had treated a lot of wounds during the war he had lived through.

Alister grunted. "We've been taking a chance by staying here so long," he replied. "We're just lucky that we haven't been accosted yet. Can you stand?" Somehow he doubted it. Valon still looked very dizzy. If the Australian tried to walk, he would probably slow them both down. And he might injure himself worse to boot.

"Sure I can," Valon said defensively, carefully getting up to do so. He ignored the sudden wave of vertigo and stepped forward purposefully, but suddenly lost his balance and nearly pitched onto the floor. Alister caught him just in time.

"Yes, I can see that," the redhead remarked ironically. He knew it was possible—even probable—that Valon had a mild concussion. It was most likely that the knocks to his head were responsible for Valon's dizziness, though it was also possible that he had lost a lot of blood as well. Alister didn't want to take any chances on getting his friend hurt worse. "You're hurt, Valon. And there's no telling how long we might be here."

"What're you gettin' at?" Valon retorted suspiciously, leaning on the wall.

Alister bent down. "Get on my back," he directed.

Valon stared at him in shock. "You must be joking," he objected.

"We don't have time to argue," Alister said flatly. "Until you can be examined by a physician, you should move about as little as possible. Just get on my back." Valon wouldn't be that heavy to carry, though it was true that Alister himself was still weak from his own experience. Valon voiced this fact, to which Alister merely grunted and said he could manage it.

"I'm not some ankle biter," Valon said now, though he grudgingly agreed to do as Alister requested. Slowly he climbed onto the taller man's back, feeling ridiculous, and grasped at Alister's shoulders.

Alister straightened up, ignoring that comment, and pondered over which direction they should take. Valon then told him about Cory and what the child had said about the other young ones in the building. Alister, of course, was not surprised. And now he knew what must be done—he must keep to his plan of finding the others before he went searching for the children. He picked a random direction and began walking.

* * *

Atemu and the others waited for the ten minutes, but no one came to investigate the source of the scream. It was possible, they supposed then, that Mai's scream had been drowned out by the many children also screaming. And so, they decided, they would pick a corridor and travel down it in the hopes of reaching the entrance to the room that stood below them.

Cory looked at Joey and Tristan with wide eyes. "My sister and my friends are down there," he exclaimed in alarm, tugging on their arms. "We have to save them!"

"We will, kid," Joey assured him as everyone stood up to try the pathway to the right. "We'll show those creeps that they can't go around takin' kids away from their families!"

Cory bit his lip, following after them. "What happened to the guy who was with me?" he wanted to know. "You know, the one who also talked really different. Did . . . did he get killed?" Tears shined in his eyes. He was tired of all this. Anyone who had been nice to him during this time of his unrighteous captivity had been found out and killed. First, one of the guards had unsuccessfully tried to help him and the others escape. Then there had been the rebel redhead. And now this wild-haired Australian had wanted to help as well. The first two were dead. There wasn't much hope for the third. But Cory still had to believe that all of these people together could do something.

Joey exchanged a look with Tristan, then looked back to the boy. "Eh . . . I'm sure he's fine," he said at last. "He's came through a lot already. I wouldn't worry about him." He walked ahead purposely with the others as the corridor sharply turned to the right. The screams were louder now and he knew that they must be getting closer.

Marik narrowed his eyes darkly. "We can't just march in there blindly," he said, though a part of him wanted to. But he knew that wouldn't help the children at all. They would need to formulate some sort of plan. And Cory would have to stay behind with someone. Since he had managed to escape the room, he shouldn't have to be exposed to it again.

"Marik is right," Atemu agreed, looking to the others in their party. "That would only be foolish and dangerous." He then proposed that he go in, along with Seth, Raphael, Joey, Tristan, Rishid, Marik, and Seto Kaiba to free the children and fight with the guards. The girls, Yugi, and Bakura would stay behind with Cory and Mokuba and try to guide the other children out of the vicinity after the men managed to get them out of the room.

Mokuba wasn't fond of the idea. "I want to help my brother!" he cried firmly, looking up at Seto and hoping for confirmation that he could.

But Seto shook his head. "It's too dangerous, Mokuba," he retorted. "You might be mistaken for one of the captive children and be taken away by one of Del Vinci's thugs." Or, as he had thought many times, Mokuba might even be recognized. Then for certain he would be taken.

"You will have an important task as well, Mokuba," Ishizu spoke up then. "It will take quite a bit of resolve and patience to help lead all of the children away from these men." She didn't feel that she and everyone else staying behind would have an easy assignment at all. As a matter of fact, their task might very well be the harder one.

Mokuba crossed his arms and glowered at the floor. But when Seto and Marik were both firm that he remain, he finally agreed. Then the child looked up at them both, his blue-gray eyes shining worriedly. "You've gotta come out of this!" he pleaded. He had just found his brother. He wasn't going to lose him again.

Seto smiled slightly and Marik ruffled Mokuba's hair. "We'll all come out of this," Seto vowed then, his expression becoming stern and determined once again.

As the group entered the large room and gazed around at the children scattered all about, the magnitude of what they needed to do suddenly dawned on them. Somehow they had to make sure that every child got out of this room safely and to the others waiting in the hall, while also making certain that Del Vinci's minions did not get out of the room to follow after the children. What was more, some of the young ones were already injured. They would need help getting out of the room.

"Holy mackerel!" Joey burst out. "There must be at least fifty kids in here!" Then he turned and immediately fell to fighting with a vicious guard who had been by the door. The others watched him, but upon seeing that he seemed able to hold his own, they advanced further into the crowded space.

Several of the children looked up, not certain what to think of this strange spectacle. But when they saw that the newcomers were all fighting with the ones who had been tormenting them, their eyes brightened and they scrambled up. Some ran to the doors and made it out into the hall. Others wandered over to the ones fighting, just watching in disbelief and awe as they realized that they were finally being rescued. Still others tried to help some of the injured children.

It was then, as Atemu was performing a Mind Crush and as Raphael tried to get two terrified and wounded little girls out of the room, that a panel opened in the back of the room. The children nearby looked up with a start. That panel was one that could only be opened from the other side and that had never been used—except by one person. Now, as it was opened, the boys and girls gasped in astonishment and disbelief as they saw that person standing in the doorway. What was especially strange was that a teenage boy was riding piggyback style on the young man's back. Well, that and the fact that the redhead standing before them was supposed to have been killed. But here he was, alive and well! The children eagerly ran over to him.

Alister smiled softly, his gray eyes kind. "Let's go," he directed. Valon watched in amazement at how trusting the young ones were of his friend.

"You were s'pposed to come before!" one girl exclaimed, looking up at him with wide brown eyes. "Everyone said that you'd died. . . ."

"He almost did," Valon replied, just wishing that he could get down. And yet, on the other hand, he really wasn't sure he would be able to walk without feeling dizzy. He idly wondered how Alister had the patience to carry him like this. They had wandered around two or three floors before arriving here. Alister's goal had been to find the others before coming here, but upon hearing the sounds of battle from the other side of the wall, he had known that the others had already gotten here first. And so he had decided to open the panel that he remembered was right there and help some more of the children get away.

Alister ignored Valon's remark. "I'm alright now," he said, "but they still think I'm dead. Let's let them keep thinking it." He shepherded the rest of the children who were at the back of the room out into the corridor. After shutting the panel again, he led them around the corner, where they found Ishizu and the others who were trying to get all the children to stay together. Everyone looked up in surprise as they approached.

"Alister!" Mokuba said in astonishment. "What happened?" He blinked at Valon, seeing the various bandages on his arms. Obviously the Australian must have gotten hurt, the younger Kaiba realized. Alister would never be carrying him otherwise—and Valon certainly wouldn't stand for it in the first place if he was alright.

"He fell off a balcony and almost died," Alister replied flatly as the children all congregated around.

"Hey, I was stabbed and pushed," Valon retorted, not wanting it to sound as though he had just had a random accident.

As the sounds of the fight continued, gunshots began to go off. The children, frightened, huddled close by their rescuers. The others listened with narrowed eyes, wincing every time a scream was heard. The chances of all of their comrades coming out of that battle unscathed were very slim.


	17. The Summoning

Seto growled, feeling a bullet shoot past him and just narrowly miss. It struck one of the guards in the arm instead and the man cursed vilely, grabbing his limb as blood seeped between his fingers. Seto turned away from the sight to squeeze against the pressure point on the back of a tough man's neck, knocking him out right before he would have harmed Raphael. Most of the children were out of the room now, but he and the others were still just as busy as they had been upon entering the room a few scant moments earlier. They had to render all of the guards unconscious before any one of them managed to get out of the room. And it almost seemed as if there had been a guard for every child, though that was certainly an exaggeration.

Seth, meanwhile, was busy striking two more guards over the head with his staff. He looked about, nearly tripped over one of the few children who still remained in the room, and then blasted a third thug back against the wall. "Isn't that about all of them by now?" he grumped as the little girl clung to his leg in fright.

"It looks like it," Raphael replied after delivering a knockout punch. Suddenly the room was very quiet, the only sounds being an occasional moan from one of the wounded gangsters and the soft whimpers of the child who was still with Seth.

"Then we should be on our way," Atemu remarked, having to smile slightly in amusement as Seth finally picked the young girl up and carried her to the door. The Pharaoh knew it wouldn't be easy to get all of the children to stay together on the long walk down to the ground floor. On the contrary, it was bound to be very hard indeed. Every one of his comrades would most likely be needed in order for it to work. And the injured children would need to be carried all along the way.

But Raphael didn't leave. It seemed to him that he had the nagging feeling that not all of the children had been retrieved. He frowned, casting his blue-eyed gaze around the room in search of any they had missed. It all looked peaceful enough. . . . Or had they for certain checked behind each crate and in every corner? He began to do so. Marik and Rishid, lingering behind after the others had gone out, soon fell to assisting him. But there were no more children in sight. Still, the feeling wouldn't go away.

Idly Raphael looked at one of the crates. It was certainly big enough that a small child could fit inside it. . . . Would something that horrible truly have happened? The rough blonde's eyes narrowed in contempt at such a thought. But as he bent down, examining the crate further, he was almost certain he heard the sound of sobbing coming from inside. In alarm he pried up the lid, discovering a young girl of about five curled up at the bottom. She looked up with a start at the light and then pressed herself against the corner, obviously afraid that Raphael would harm her.

"It's alright," Raphael said quietly, trying to hold back his anger at the horror of the child being trapped in the box. "You're going to be alright now. I'm not going to harm you."

The child sniffled, her reddish-orange bangs falling into her hazel eyes. "The mean men were hurting us," she cried, not moving from her curled position. "I came in here to hide. Then something fell on top of the box and I couldn't get back out!" Her eyes conveyed endless trauma and suffering, though physically she didn't seem to be too badly hurt. She gazed at Raphael, wanting to believe that it was true that he wouldn't hurt her. He looked just as strong and fierce as the ones who had been causing torment, but there did seem to be something different about him. He didn't look like the kind of person who would go about cruelly striking fear into the hearts of her peers.

Raphael frowned at this information, supposing that the nails on the lid had been sticking out and then when something had fallen on the lightly closed lid the nails had been driven into the rest of the crate, sealing it shut. Such a small child would not be able to get the lid up again if that had happened. "Are you hurt?" he asked.

"No," the girl replied, "but I just want to go home now!" She reached up when Raphael reached down, clinging to the man's thick arms and pleading with her eyes to be allowed to go home. Then she was lifted out of her prison and held close as Raphael assured her that she would be able to go home. She reminded him of Sonia in a way. Her hair, though a different color, was long and soft and flowing. Her eyes carried the same sweet innocence. And when she relaxed and let Raphael carry her out of the room, she had the same peaceful smile.

* * *

Duke and Emma both were stunned to realize that they had just collided with Yami Bakura. Of course, Emma hadn't ever met the thief before, but it was quite a shock to knock someone down who then began cursing in an ancient language. And when she and Duke both got up and saw the wild-haired man in front of them, she exclaimed in disbelief.

"What are you looking at, woman?" he then snapped, keeping a firm grip on the Ring hanging from around his neck.

Duke blinked at him. "I thought you were at Bakura's place, resting," he remarked. And even as he spoke, Yami Bakura was placing a hand over the spot where he had been wounded. Obviously the injury had inadvertently been jarred.

"None of your business, fool," came the retort in a gravelly, annoyed voice. Yes, Yami Bakura had been resting, but he had been getting irritated with Bakura's father and Frances talking in the living room downstairs and so he had left to find his hikari. "But are you aware that the Mafia don you are trying to stop is right now summoning spirits to assist him in his devious deeds?" He narrowed his chocolate brown eyes, glaring harshly at Duke and then looking from him to Emma.

Duke's mouth dropped open. "Holy Toledo!" he cried. A couple of years ago, he wouldn't have believed such a thing. But by now he had been exposed to so many oddities that he could comprehend this in a heartbeat. Yami Bakura should certainly know if it was true—and since it must be, they would most likely be in for disasters much worse than anything else they had encountered so far. "How does he even know how to do that?" It seemed strange, in a way—that a criminal kingpin would use such supernatural methods to gain what he wished.

"Blast it! I haven't done research on the man!" Yami Bakura snapped. "I only know that he is summoning evil spirits!" He gestured wildly with a hand and then stormed to the door of the stairwell. "Ask him yourself how he learned the skill!"

Emma stared at him with wide eyes. "My goodness, young man!" she exclaimed, obviously thinking that his manners left something to be desired.

Yami Bakura looked back to her and sneered in some sort of amusement. "Actually, my good woman, you're still a mere child in comparison with my years." With that he walked out onto the floor, in search of Bakura.

Emma turned to look at Duke in astonishment. "Do you know him?" she asked. It was clear from her eyes that she thought Yami Bakura was an escapee from the local insane asylum.

Duke shrugged and sighed, going back out the door to follow the thief. "You could say that," he admitted.

* * *

Yami Bakura's statements about Del Vinci were correct. Indeed, the Mafia don was currently in his office—ignoring the broken window from the hitman's and Marik's fall—and kneeling on the floor to the side of his desk, chanting low and smirking to himself. He was quite aware of the intruders wandering through his corporation. And he would put a stop to it. But since his guards had not had any luck getting rid of them, Del Vinci was going to try more . . . interesting measures.

Gozaburo now appeared in front of him, looking annoyed. "What do you want now?" he grumped. He hated that Del Vinci had learned to summon spirits—and that he himself was the favored one to be summoned. The only reason he pretended to work with the crime boss was because he wanted to torment Seto Kaiba. Their goals were the same, though in the end Gozaburo planned to doublecross Del Vinci. He held no loyalty for the other man, just as he had never really held any loyalty for anyone.

"We have intruders," Del Vinci said smoothly as he looked up at him, "and Seto Kaiba has escaped captivity. Take the ninjas and kill them all—save for the Kaiba brothers and one very pesky redhead. I'll deal with those three myself." Yes, he had found out that Alister still lived. Though once he would have wanted the traitor to remain on the mortal plane (in order to continue the attempt to get information from him), now that Seto was in his grasp Del Vinci couldn't care less about Alister's life. But he wanted to destroy the redhead himself instead of letting the ninjas take care of it for him. And on second thought, he told Gozaburo to also spare the lives of the Australian and the muscular blonde—knowing that they were Alister's close friends.

Gozaburo narrowed his eyes in contempt. "I'm not your obedient, faithful cur, Del Vinci!" he growled. "You can summon spirits, but that is all. You have no control over me and I won't let you have the enjoyment of dealing with Seto yourself." He had his own personal vendetta against his adopted son. Seto was not everything Gozaburo had wanted him to become. He still had ties and was close to one person on earth—his brother Mokuba. That, Gozaburo believed, was Seto's weakness. And he wouldn't stand for it—nor for what Seto had turned KaibaCorp into. No longer was it a company for weapons and destruction. Now it specialized in video game technology! Gozaburo was not pleased in the least.

And neither was Del Vinci. "And what do you mean to do?" he snapped. He had suspected that this time would come. Actually, he had been amazed that Gozaburo had cooperated with him this long. But apparently now it was time for the severing of their "partnership."

"I will handle Seto myself." With that Gozaburo vanished. Del Vinci didn't need to know the details of his plans.

The Mafia don glared after the former CEO of KaibaCorp with distaste, then fell to his chanting again. Gozaburo would not hear the end of this. Del Vinci would send another departed soul—or several—to stop him from having his own revenge on Seto. That was what Del Vinci was starved for. He sneered at the thought. Killing Mokuba, Valon, and Raphael while making Seto and Alister helplessly watch—and then exterminating the other two as well—would be more than enough revenge to satisfy his hunger.

* * *

Keeping more than fifty children together while trying to lead them to the exit of a large and spacious building would normally be an extremely difficult task, but the situation now was so unusual that what was generally normal was not the case now. All of the young ones had been immensely traumatized by the experiences they had gone through and now simply wanted to stay close to their rescuers. Those who were injured were being carried by Bakura, Marik, and others. Raphael and Atemu were at the front and the back of the procession, respectively, and were on guard for any possible dangers that might be encountered. No one believed that they would actually be able to get the children out of the building without more battles with their enemies. That would be too much to ever hope for.

Valon, upon seeing Mai, climbed down from Alister's back and went over to her. "Mai?" He stared at her without meaning to, his blue eyes widening. She hadn't changed, unless it was only to become more beautiful. Her lovely and abundant blonde hair rippled over her shoulders and down her back, while her violet eyes—so deep and full of emotions and feelings—studied him like bright amethysts. He loved looking into those eyes, and he couldn't forget how he had first felt when he had seen them—and their owner.

She gazed back at him, apparently at a loss for words at first. He looked weakened and injured—both of which he was—but his blue orbs had lost none of their fire and spark. They were the same eyes that had studied her on that night when she had left her hotel room in emotional anguish after suffering another of her nightmares about the demon Yami Marik. He had offered her what he and she both thought she truly wanted—power. But though it had worked for a while, in the end she had been left without anything of true value. And so she had found another failed road to what would make her happy. Valon, too, had conceded that power wasn't what would make him honestly happy. But as Mai looked at him now, he seemed different in a way—almost as if he had at last found what he had sought.

"Valon . . . it's . . . good to see you again," she found herself saying slowly. She had told him more than once in the past that she did not like him or need him, but she actually wasn't certain that it was true. Still, she _was_ quite certain of one thing—she didn't love Valon the way he loved her. If she cared about him, it was only in a purely platonic way.

"It's been a long time," Valon replied quietly, "a real long time." He smiled brightly, obviously thrilled to see her again. "Where've you been keepin' yourself? And how'd you wind up here?" It seemed a strange coincidence.

Mai shrugged. "I've been here . . . there . . . just about everywhere since. . . ." She trailed off, but both she and Valon knew she meant "since we returned to our bodies after Doom." That seemed ages behind them now, though it actually hadn't been that long ago, chronologically speaking. Quickly Mai rushed on, not wanting to linger over memories of Doom. "And as for why I'm here, I was at that charity ball. You know—the one that wasn't really a charity ball at all." Her voice was heavily sarcastic now, as she brushed several stray locks of hair back over her shoulders.

"You're just as beautiful as ever," Valon remarked seriously, reaching out in hopes to take her hand.

Mai pulled it back. "You look like you were in a motorcycle accident," she frowned in reply, looking at him again and wondering if she was actually feeling a bit of concern for him.

Valon laughed, ignoring the stab of disappointment that she would not let him take her hand—though he had really expected that she wouldn't. "I've been through worse," he said without elaborating. They were now almost near the end of the procession and quite close to Atemu. Valon nearly tripped over an unsuspecting child but then realized she was there before he would have done so. He blinked, also ignoring the bit of dizziness that was trying to come over him again. He did not want to get on Alister's back again—and certainly not while Mai was there! She would definitely not be impressed by that.

Mai was silent now, mulling over what she wanted to put into words. It was easy to see that Valon was, indeed, different—though he was the same as well. Different and yet the same. It sounded like a contradiction, but at the moment Mai felt that it described Valon perfectly. She wished she could figure out what it was that seemed different about him. What could he have discovered since she had seen him last? After pondering for another moment, she finally just came right out and asked him. "What did you find?"

Valon blinked at her, not quite understanding. "Huh?"

Mai looked out ahead. "You're different, Valon. . . . When I knew you before, let's face it—we were both wandering around and lost, even though we both thought we knew what we were doing." _And I still feel empty in some way. What's missing?_ "You don't seem that way anymore. You must have made some kind of brilliant discovery. What was it?"

Valon suddenly gave a half-smile, now realizing what she meant. "Actually, Mai, it was really simple," he started to say, but he was abruptly interrupted by some of the children shrieking in alarm and terror. Instantly his and Mai's attentions were diverted elsewhere.

Atemu's eyes narrowed darkly. "This isn't good," he said as a certain darkness began to settle down over the entire group. Mists swirled about them all, as if they were out exploring the English moors on a foggy night—but this didn't seem like ordinary fog. It seemed to almost have a lifeforce of its own—a lifeforce that was wicked and abominable.

"What is it?" Téa cried from somewhere up ahead. The children nearest to her clung even tighter to her clothes and her arms and hands. And she had experienced enough disturbing things over the years to be able to recognize when another was happening. This was something supernatural.

"Whatever it is, I hate it already," Tristan muttered.

"It's some of Del Vinci's minions," Alister spoke up then, "in a manner of speaking." This was an aspect he hadn't recalled upon first regaining consciousness, but now—as spirits swirled around everyone threateningly—he remembered seeing Del Vinci summoning spirits once, when he had been laying tied to the slab and semi-conscious from the pain of being viciously beaten. The entities had then tormented him, bringing to light his most painful memories from the past. The experience had been so horrible that he had temporarily blocked it from his mind.

Before anyone had a chance to respond to this statement, the spirits closed in more. The lights overhead were almost entirely unseen now, as the shadows floated and curled around their victims. They began whispering, each person hearing his or her own worst fears being made manifest. And for some, such as Alister, they were reassured again and again that they were to blame for the horrible misfortunes that had befallen their family and friends in the past. While some tried to bear the continuing torture stoically, others were not able to do so very well. Their cries of agony and self-hatred could be heard all up and down the halls.

And Del Vinci sneered. It was just as he had wanted.


	18. The Point of No Return

**Notes: Even though the person who pointed this out was extremely immature in doing so, she had a point. I altered the text slightly so that Marik goes with the other group. But I would like to make it clear that every time I get excited about new characters, I wish for them to occupy the spotlight for a bit. It was no different when I got excited about the Ishtars. The Kaibas were originally "the stars" of my mysteries, until the Ishtars came along. However, even if the plots do sometimes seem to revolve around certain characters, the mystery fics are supposed to be about the group as a whole. Deal with it. If anyone gives me one more review that is nothing but complaining about the Doom bikers (or anyone else), they will be blocked from reviewing, because they are not being helpful and are only presenting themselves to me as being immature. If they wish to offer constructive criticism, that is something different. Thank you.  
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Seto was one of those who was most deeply affected, though he tried not to show it. Repeatedly he was reminded of various painful instances during his life—especially times such as when he had been attempting to buy out Gozaburo's company and he had spread it around that Mokuba had leaked the plan. He clenched his fist tightly. He wasn't especially proud of past things such as that, but he still believed that he had only been trying to do something for Mokuba's benefit in the end. After all, if they always lived with Gozaburo looming behind them, their lives would never be happy. He had been a cruel man, unworthy of being a father. Sometimes Seto wondered if he'd even done the right thing by setting things up so that he and Mokuba would be adopted by Gozaburo. But then he would tell himself that he'd done the best he could and that now Mokuba would be a lot better off later on his life because Seto owned KaibaCorp. 

Marik, also, was being grieved—by memories of Battle City and times before that. His heart had been darkened by the thirst for revenge. After all, what right did the Pharaoh have, to torment the Ishtar family after they were already slaving their lives away just for him? The Egyptian boy punched the wall furiously. If the Pharaoh truly had been responsible for what had happened, Marik might still believe that he had been doing the right thing. But then again, perhaps not. He had been so blinded by his desire to avenge the wrongdoings that he had pushed his siblings away from him and had allowed the dark feelings within his soul to grow. And Yami Marik had feasted upon those dark feelings. They had made him become stronger, though Rishid had still been holding him back from emerging. Marik let out a cry of rage and frustration as scenes played out in front of his eyes. He saw how heartbroken both Ishizu and Rishid had been. He had to watch again as Rishid was struck by lightning and to feel the pain and panic as Yami Marik fought him for control of his body. And it was all agonizing. Had he truly forgiven himself for that time in his life? When he was forced to watch it all again, he had to wonder. The feelings of self-hatred were strong.

Rishid gritted his teeth, hearing his brother's piercing cry. He himself was forced to feel again the many times he had felt unwanted or that he hadn't been able to protect poor Marik good enough. There had been so many times such as those. He felt sick as he remembered the boy's terror-filled eyes as he had reached out desperately and screamed for Rishid to help him and to make it so that he wouldn't have to go through the ritual. Rishid had tried, he had tried his best, but it hadn't been good enough. Marik had undergone the ritual anyway and his feelings of betrayal and hatred towards almost everything and everyone had created the demon Yami Marik—though Rishid alone was able to keep the beast from getting out. He had struggled so hard to protect Marik throughout all the ensuing years, but it had been so hard and in the end, he hadn't been able to keep Yami Marik held back. And yet . . . he had been the only one who had been able to convince Marik to keep fighting against the Yami. Rishid clung to this thought as he tried to keep hold of his sanity and reason. The last thing they needed now was to fall into despair! They had to rescue the children! They had to find a way to overcome this darkness.

"ENOUGH!"

Everyone was startled by Atemu's forceful cry, though some were already lost deep in their inner angst and didn't pay him much heed. But the Pharaoh was outraged at all of this. It could only be a means of sinking them so low that they wouldn't be alert enough to know what was going on and to be able to do what they needed to. And it didn't surprise him at all that the spirits were capable of such abominable, satanic behavior—though it was a grim shock that Del Vinci knew how to summon such beings.

"Are you going to fall prey to this?" Atemu yelled, clenching a fist as his violet eyes flashed angrily. He strained to look beyond the darkness to see the others, the Millennium Puzzle beginning to glow brightly. "This is what they want all of you to do. If you give in, then they and Del Vinci have already won."

"Yami is right!" Yugi's voice spoke up from somewhere in the darkness. "We have to fight this! This isn't just something that Yami can get rid of really easily, because it's already affecting all of us. We have to work together to make the spirits go! Who's with me?"

One by one many of the others joined their determination and righteous indignation to Yugi's and Atemu's. And slowly but surely, the darkness began to disperse, though the entities still struggled to grasp hold of the very sensitive hearts and dig their talons in deeper. But for any who seemed to be sinking low in despair, there were comrades to help bring them back to the light. And eventually, with everyone pooling all of their energies together, the spirits had to fade away into nothingness with their wicked shrieks—and one hostage.

"Mokuba!" Seto screamed as he looked about. "They've taken Mokuba!" And something snapped within him. The spirits were taking his brother back to Del Vinci, who had already done treacherous things to the child twice before. Seto wouldn't stand for anything happening a third time. And before he could be stopped, he was running into the nearest stairwell. He would find Del Vinci—and this time the Mafia don better be praying that Seto wouldn't get hold of a weapon. For if he did, Seto wasn't sure that this time he wouldn't use it.

"Kaiba!" Téa cried in vain as he ran off. "Wait!" She reached for him, grabbing desperately, and only managed to grip at the bottom of his trenchcoat. But Seto was stronger and didn't even notice her attempt to stop him as he continued to blindly run up the stairs.

Téa let her hand drop back to her side as upset tears filled her eyes. "I'm afraid for him," she managed to say as Marik came to her in concern. "I'm afraid of what he's going to do now. . . ." She couldn't forget the first time Seto had encountered Del Vinci and had wound up pointing a gun at the criminal kingpin. Eventually he had refused to shoot the man, because, as he had said, that would make him as bad as Del Vinci himself. But now, when the wicked man was likely to get hold of Mokuba for the third time—and the second in this year—it looked as though Seto's patience had finally, completely, firmly snapped. Téa didn't blame him in the least, but she feared greatly for him.

Marik laid a hand on her shoulder. "We'll find him," he said quietly. He also was concerned about what Seto might do. The consequences could affect him and Mokuba for years to come. In the distance he could still hear Seto furiously climbing the staircases. Del Vinci's office was at the top.

"But what about the kids?" Téa replied in desperation. "We can't just leave them here!" It was such a horrible dilemma! Whatever were they going to do?

* * *

Mokuba kicked and struggled and cried out in protest as the spirits carried him off. But though he screamed for Seto, he was certain that his voice was being muffled by the evil entities. And then, instead of appearing in Del Vinci's office, as all had thought would happen, Mokuba found himself being dropped harshly on the roof. He yelped, sprawling down in the many inches of snow that hadn't been shoveled away from the storm that was still going on right now. "Hey!" he said indignantly, glaring up where the spirits had been. But now they were here no longer. Now Gozaburo was walking out onto the roof, looking wickedly satisfied. 

"I wouldn't bother crying out for your brother," the man sneered. "You should know he's on his way. And when he comes . . . I have my score to settle with him."

Mokuba got up angrily, glaring at his stepfather. "Gozaburo! You leave Seto alone!" he ordered, deciding to overlook his surprise. It didn't really matter how the man had gotten here. But what did matter was that he was here—and that Seto had been targeted, just as he had been in Noa's virtual world.

"It's because of you that Seto isn't everything he was meant to be!" Gozaburo retorted, his thick eyebrows narrowing as he looked down at the child. "I trained him to be ruthless and cruel in order to become a successful businessman! But he wastes his time chasing after you every time you're in danger!" He had never really liked Mokuba—not that he had particularly liked Seto either. But he had always seen Mokuba as something useless and worthless and unneeded in Seto's life. That was one of the main reasons why he had kept the brothers separated after they had come to live with him.

Mokuba clenched his fists, not wanting Gozaburo to see how deeply those words pierced his heart. But the child wasn't very good at hiding his emotions and it was obvious that Gozaburo had struck a nerve. He always worried about Seto coming after him when things got dangerous. He was always afraid that his brother would wind up getting seriously hurt. And he hated being used as a bargaining chip by Seto's enemies. But on the other hand. . . . On the other hand, he knew Gozaburo's words were wrong and untrue.

"Seto's more successful than you!" the boy screamed at last, his blue-gray eyes aflame with earnestness. "He's more successful because he has a heart!"

"Ha! That's merely childish naivete! Businessmen don't need to rely on their hearts." Gozaburo regarded Mokuba with disgust and hoped that Seto would arrive soon. First he would likely get waylaid by Del Vinci. But then he would find that the real enemy here was not Del Vinci at all. Gozaburo had been pulling the strings behind all of this—or at least behind the parts that were relevant to the Kaibas. He was what Seto needed to worry about now.

* * *

By the time Duke, Emma, and Yami Bakura at last joined the perplexed group, they were not any closer to determining what should be done than they had been before. Ishizu was suggesting right then that she and some of the others go ahead and take the children while the remainder went after the Kaibas and Del Vinci, but Marik objected to the idea. 

"What if there aren't enough people there to protect the children if you get attacked again?" he exclaimed, his lavender eyes filled with concern. And what if his siblings would be harmed as well? He couldn't bear the thought.

"We would be alright, Marik," Ishizu replied gently. She would prefer it if Marik came with them, but she knew he was torn between doing that and going to find his friend.

"Foolish mortals," was Yami Bakura's only comment.

Alister watched everything coldly, his gray eyes dark behind the sunglasses—which he had replaced after Valon had gone over to speak with Mai. An anger burned within his soul at Del Vinci's treachery. So many children had been carelessly and cruelly hurt because of his selfishness! It was just like what Alister had believed about the Kaiba empire for so many years—only this time, he knew it was the truth and not a fable made up by someone such as Dartz. Del Vinci was a madman who deserved to be stopped. And Alister had made up his mind to do exactly that. But as to exactly how he would stop him, Alister was uncertain.

In the end, they decided the following—Ishizu, Rishid, Tristan, Bakura, Duke, Yami Bakura, and Emma would all go with the children. Téa was worried about Seto and Mokuba and wanted to go after them. Yugi, Atemu, Marik, Joey, and Gabrielle would accompany her. Alister wished to come along as well, to make certain that Del Vinci would be stopped and that Mokuba could be rescued. Then, of course, Valon and Raphael opted to go with him. And Mai, for whatever reason, decided to tag along. And so, the stage was set for the final act.

* * *

Seto burst into Del Vinci's office, his blue eyes flashing with severe ire. He had encountered quite a few guards along the way but had managed to triumph over all of them, leaving a trail of dazed and unconscious men in his wake. Now here he was, facing his old nemesis once again—with Mokuba as the stakes in what would surely be a battle to the death. 

"Where is he?" he asked in a very dark, low, deadly tone. "Where is my brother?"

Del Vinci looked up, actually blinking with surprise. "You're early," he smirked. "I don't have him yet." But even as he said this, he was certain he knew that someone else already had the boy—and he was displeased. But perhaps he could use Gozaburo's betrayal to his own advantage.

"You're lying!" Seto hissed, stepping closer. If Téa were to see him now, she would most certainly fear for him all the more. "You have my brother. All of this happened because you wanted to get at me!"

"I won't deny that," Del Vinci shrugged. "But the simple fact remains that I don't have Mokuba. I really wanted him, too. It would have made it ever so much more interesting. But you see, my . . . business partner has him." He experienced a certain satisfaction at the way Seto looked at him with pure disgust and annoyance. "If you want to get him, you'll have to find where he is." He wondered why the spirits he had sent out had assisted Gozaburo instead of him, as they had been ordered to do, but then decided not to worry about it. He might find a greater delight in tormenting Seto this way than the way he'd originally planned.

"I won't play your games!" Seto was now almost shouting. "I want to know where Mokuba is!"

Del Vinci crossed his arms, pondering over the answer to this. He wanted to know where Mokuba was as well, so that the amusement could begin. "Think about it, Kaiba," he said at last. "We're on the top floor. Where else could the pathetic child be?" He laughed, the answer having came to him. Gozaburo must have him on the roof. That would make things all the more sticky and intense.

Seto suddenly realized it as well. He turned abruptly to the left and the door marked "Roof." Del Vinci had his own private staircase to get up there. And now Seto was going to use it. At the moment he had no thoughts of anything else—not even KaibaCorp—besides getting Mokuba back safe. And that was precisely what Del Vinci wanted—and what Gozaburo was incensed by.

Now the crime boss took a step forward, intending to follow after Seto, when he heard the unmistakable click of a revolver in the near-darkness. He froze, his eyes narrowing. "Who's there?" he demanded. How had someone managed to sneak into his office without him noticing? They would have had to have used the secret entrance at the back. But . . . no one knew about that way in, except for a few select people. . . .

"Surprise." The voice was almost nasal, but not quite—and it was tinged with dark, righteous indignation. As the lights in Del Vinci's office suddenly went on, he found Alister approaching him with a gun in hand. Behind him were Valon, Raphael, and the others who had chosen to come this way. They watched the redhead in concern, wondering what it was that he was planning to do. Alister had got the loaded gun from one of the crime boss's minions during a scuffle they had gone through on their way to find this secret entrance into Del Vinci's office. From the looks of things, he might be planning to do exactly what Téa had feared Seto would.

Del Vinci swallowed hard, frowning as his former prisoner approached him. The Mafia don backed up, eventually against the opposite wall—and Alister came to stand in front of him, holding the gun directly over his heart. The sunglasses had slipped down his nose, partially revealing his cold gray eyes. He could see that Del Vinci was really quite a coward when he was by himself and with no one to protect him. This disgusted him, but he really wasn't surprised by the discovery.

"You've been endangering the lives of children," Alister remarked, his gaze boring into Del Vinci's own. He was certain that he could hear the man's heart beating wildly. "Your men weren't merely holding them captive—they were torturing them! So many innocent lives . . . so many pure hearts, just like my brother Miruko's. This time I'm not wrong in my accusations. I know they're all true." His hand shook briefly and then held the revolver firm against Del Vinci's chest. He hated weapons. He hated them with a passion—but still he knew how to use them.

Valon stared at him, them looked up at Raphael. "He's gonna kill him!" the Australian gasped. "Alister's gonna kill him!" And certainly Del Vinci's wretched life seemed to deserve to be ended. But still . . . Valon felt uneasy about all of this. He didn't want to see Alister deliberately end someone's life.

Raphael's gaze hardened. He knew it looked like that was what was going to happen. He moved forward, laying a hand firmly on Alister's shoulder. The redhead had to get control of his emotions. Usually Alister had no problem doing so, but cases such as these were the exceptions. Alister hated and loathed anything that would harm innocent children for selfish, unfeeling reasons.

Del Vinci gripped the wall with his hands as he pressed himself harder against it. "It was an ingenious plan, wasn't it," he tried to smirk. Alister's lip curled in revulsion.

"No," Raphael spoke up then, "monstrous would be more fitting." And of course it was. If Alister pulled the trigger, some would say he was entirely justified. But Raphael was afraid of what it would do to his friend afterwards. That one action might completely destroy Alister. And Alister was not God. It was not his place to determine life or death. Raphael had finally learned this because of Doom. They had tried, in their misguided way, to save the world—but Raphael realized now that they would have actually destroyed it.

"You have to pay for what you've done." Alister's words cut through the tension like a knife as his comrades continued to stand around him and pray that he would do the right thing. And Raphael continued to grip at the younger man's shoulder. "If you're allowed to go free, there's no telling how many more people are going to be hurt or killed! . . . No telling how many more children will suffer. . . ." The redhead swallowed hard, thinking of his brother Miruko.

The hesitation was driving Del Vinci almost mad. "Well, do it for Heaven's sake!" he screamed. "If you're going to kill me, get it over with!"

"You can't do it, Alister!" Valon yelled then, unable to hold his emotions back. "Come on, are you crazy! Did you forget about Doom and what happened then!" He clenched his fists, agonized by the wait as well.

For what almost seemed like five minutes, there was complete silence, save for Del Vinci's loud and nervous breathing. Then, at last, Alister's voice came again. "I haven't forgotten," he said in that same low tone, "and I'm not going to do it." He fired the gun's bullets into the floor, then threw the empty weapon to the floor and stepped on it. "Del Vinci shouldn't be able to get off that easily after what he did." Had that been Alister's plan all along? Or had he experienced a change of heart along the way when he had fully intended to pull the trigger? It wasn't obvious which, but the others were immensely relieved. Raphael smiled slightly, removing his hand from Alister's shoulder and stepping back.

Del Vinci was stunned at first, but then sneered wickedly as it dawned on him what had happened. "Foolish," he remarked, "very foolish. You made the same mistake that Kaiba did upon our first encounter. And you will suffer for it!" He lunged with a knife that had previously been concealed in his pocket.


	19. The Lightning

**Notes: Before certain people read this chapter, they should go have a look at the minor revisions I made to chapter 18 and take stock of the note at the beginning of that chapter, because I do not wish to repeat myself.**

* * *

At the last possible moment, Alister dove out of the way. Then he, Valon, Raphael, and Marik all ran forward and restrained the Mafia don from behind and at the sides. Valon eventually got into an arm-wrestling contest with Del Vinci as they struggled over the knife, but finally the Australian got the upper hand by hitting a pressure point on the man's arm. Del Vinci cried out in pain as his limb went numb. The knife soon dropped to the floor, where it was picked up by an annoyed Joey.

"I don't particularly wanna get stabbed again," Valon remarked hotly, glaring at Del Vinci and having the longing to simply give him a knockout punch. Then they'd be able to get him tied up and go on to look for Seto and Mokuba. Atemu had discovered the door leading to the roof and figured that it was the only place where Seto could have gone.

Mai blinked at Valon. _He was stabbed?_ She could see the blood from the makeshift bandage through the brunette's torn jacket, but she hadn't ever imagined that Valon would have been stabbed. _There's no end to the trouble he gets himself into._

Alister pressed down on the back of Del Vinci's neck, causing the man to go limp and start to crumple to the floor in unconsciousness. Marik and Raphael managed to hold him up, regarding him darkly. Then Valon smirked, removing Del Vinci's tie and beginning to tie him up with it.

Marik let go now, looking toward the door that led to the roof. "There's no telling what might be going on up there," he said quietly, clenching a fist. "If Mokuba's up there, nothing good will come of it." Without waiting for the others, he ran up the stairs and out onto the roof. Téa called for him to wait, but in vain.

Raphael assisted Valon and Alister with getting Del Vinci tied up. "That took a lot of courage," he said low, looking at Alister, "not to shoot him." His eyes narrowed darkly. "But I won't deny he deserved it." He was relieved that Alister had made the decision that he had, though he was certain it must have been a rough mental struggle to finally decide upon it. Even if he had intended all along to keep Del Vinci alive, Alister must have surely been tempted to pull the trigger when the gun had been in his hand.

"Yes," Alister growled, "he deserved it." He stood up slowly, not offering any more conversation. This was not the time. Perhaps later he would talk with the others about what had happened, if he felt like it. But right now he certainly didn't. There was still another child in danger.

* * *

Seto was aghast and angry when he reached the roof and saw the sight before him. Indeed, Mokuba was here, being tightly restrained by three ninjas near the edge. Gozaburo was standing nearby, watching with approval. Upon hearing the door to the roof open, the ghostly businessman turned around to face his stepson, snow wildly blowing around them.

"So! I knew you would come, Seto," Gozaburo growled. "It was predictable. Right now nothing is more important to you than your precious brother!"

Seto was not pleased. This was the third time he had encountered Gozaburo in the past twenty-four hours—and it was certainly the worst of those three times. "I should have known you'd have him," he said darkly. "Gozaburo, let my brother go!"

Mokuba had also looked up as soon as the door opened, his blue-gray eyes going wide with both relief and worry. "Seto!" he cried, struggling against the ninjas. They only held him tighter and forced him closer to the edge.

"Look at you!" Gozaburo cried in annoyance, ignoring Mokuba. "You're not even concerned about your—my—company. You never even bothered to attempt to find out if everything is going well with it at the moment! And I happen to know that some of Del Vinci's gunmen were in the infirmary earlier and made quite a scene." This was true, and all of the KaibaCorp staff was going mad because Seto could not be located to be informed about it. Already local tabloids were speculating on whether Seto had possibly been killed in the incident and if his employees were simply being unwilling to tell about it.

Seto's eyes narrowed angrily. Of course he was concerned about his company, and he knew he'd never gotten there so many hours earlier when he had been attempting it, but right now Mokuba's safety was worth more than ten KaibaCorps. He told this to Gozaburo in no uncertain terms. The man wasn't surprised by this attitude and wanted to take advantage of it.

"If that's the way you feel, Seto, you shouldn't mind handing KaibaCorp back to me—where it belongs." He regarded his stepson with a look filled with both accusations and triumph.

But Seto wasn't impressed. "How would you expect to run my company now?" he retorted. "You don't have a mortal body!" His expression only became darker. "And besides, I've worked hard to make that company what it is and to change it from the weapons empire it once was. I wouldn't give it to you."

"Then it seems you're not as adamant about saving your brother as you tried to claim!" Gozaburo cried, looking to Mokuba for his reaction.

But the child's eyes were narrowed as well—and at Gozaburo. "Seto doesn't have to be manipulated by you, Gozaburo!" Mokuba burst out. "Of course he's not gonna let you have KaibaCorp! I . . . I wouldn't want him to do that . . . not even for me. . . ." His voice dropped lower and lower and he stared down at the snow-covered roof. It may all be true, but Mokuba didn't really want to be thrown off the roof either. Still, he knew Seto would never let that happen to him. He had perfect confidence in his elder brother.

Gozaburo looked back to Seto. "And concerning the problem of my lack of a body, Seto—that could be easily solved." As his steely gaze continued to unfaze the teenager, the meaning of his words was unmistakable. Either Gozaburo was saying that he wanted to possess Seto . . . or that he wanted Seto to keep running the company, but only the way that he, Gozaburo, wanted it done. And since Seto would never do the latter, Gozaburo must mean the former.

Seto regarded him with disgust. "You've got to be kidding," he snapped. "I have my dignity and my pride. I won't allow you to tell me what I can or can't do in order to keep my brother safe!" Even as he spoke, he tried to look about for a means of escape. If he managed to get Mokuba away safely, what then? And how would he even get his brother back safely? The ninjas were holding onto him and not about to let go.

What was that sound he could hear in the near distance? Idly he glanced up into the sky. It almost sounded like a helicopter. Briefly he entertained the idea that it was one of his company's helicopters, but then quickly dismissed the idea as far-fetched and impossible. Most likely it was merely one of the vehicles that always passed over Domino City at various hours of the day and night.

During the split second that Seto was thus occupied, Marik burst onto the roof. "Mokuba!" the Egyptian teen cried in alarm, instantly taking in the situation. He looked at the ninjas furiously and then at Gozaburo before looking back to Seto and wondering what the other boy was going to do about this.

Shortly Téa and the rest of the group also burst onto the roof. They regarded the sights with abhorrence, but were all reluctant to step forward and try to assist until they knew what it was that Seto was planning—as they could tell from his narrowed eyes and deep frown that he was postulating something.

Alister clenched his fists, hating to see Mokuba being lifted up almost to the level of the railing. If the ninjas were to suddenly release him, he would fall! _Kaiba, do something!_ he mentally yelled.

Gozaburo continued to ignore the presence of anyone on the roof besides himself, Seto, Mokuba, and the ninjas. "Well, Seto," he demanded, "what will it be? Will you save your brother and lose your company—or will you lose your brother to save your company?"

Seto looked at him with hatred. "You wouldn't allow him to drop," he said finally. "He's too valuable to you." He took several steps forward, praying that he was right. It was possible, he supposed, that Gozaburo would determine that he already had his answer and therefore, had no need to keep Mokuba. He was taking a chance on a lot by assuming otherwise.

"I thought he was," Gozaburo retorted, "but it seems that you've proven what you truly care about the most—and that it isn't him!"

At that moment, Seto, Marik, and Alister all ran forward at once and over to the ninjas. While Marik and Alister tackled the ones at the sides, Seto punched the third and grabbed Mokuba away—leaping over the railing in the process. "You have your answer, Gozaburo!" he screamed, his trenchcoat flying out behind him.

For a split second everyone was too stunned to do a thing. What had Seto done! But then they saw him and Mokuba—both safely on a rope ladder hanging from the helicopter that Seto had seen only a few moments previous.

"This isn't over, Seto!" Gozaburo yelled furiously, glaring up at him.

Seto half-turned, glaring right back as his bangs blew about in the wind and fell into his blue eyes. "Oh, it will never be over," he retorted darkly. Téa wondered exactly what he meant by this.

"But for now it is!" Atemu cried then, stepping forward to banish Gozaburo while Marik and Alister were busy clobbering the two ninjas and rendering them senseless.

Before the Pharaoh could attempt at doing what he was planning to, a wild, raucous cackle echoed throughout the skies. Instantly everyone raised startled, confused gazes to the dark grey clouds that were the source of the snow that continued to flutter down around them. No living entity could be seen, but abruptly from the clouds came streaks of lightning which jabbed down upon the roof and almost electrocuted many of the people there.

"What's happening?" Téa screamed, her blue eyes wide with alarm.

"It's gotta be that freak from earlier!" Joey retorted, pulling her out of the way of another blast. He couldn't forget Runihura or his battle with Shadi. Obviously Runihura was someone to be reckoned with, and even though they couldn't worry about him right now, he wanted to make himself known.

Gozaburo yelled in anger as one of the bolts struck him. Of course, it couldn't really do any damage, since he was no longer mortal, but it was just one more aggravation to add to the list. Obviously he wasn't going to win tonight. He looked at Seto and Mokuba furiously as he vanished.

The Kaiba brothers were in for another surprise. As they climbed into the helicopter, they were greeted by none other than Pegasus.

"Oh, hello, Kaiba-boy!" the silvery-haired man greeted Seto nonchalantly. "It's a good thing I arrived when I did, isn't it." He smiled in self-satisfaction, crossing his arms and leaning back in the seat.

Seto and Mokuba both just gaped at him. "What are you doing in a KaibaCorp helicopter, Pegasus!" Mokuba cried at last.

Roland then came over to them from the cockpit. "Mr. Pegasus was the only one who knew where you both might be, sirs," he replied sheepishly, hoping that his employer wouldn't be irritated with him for bringing the other businessman along. Pegasus had contacted him from the hospital with the information during the time when Roland and the other staff members at KaibaCorp had been worrying over where their boss might have gone, then had invited himself along on the helicopter.

"That's fine then," Seto grunted. He didn't really care at the moment that Pegasus had came along. He was still too angry at Gozaburo to really be irritated over that fact.

"We need to get the others," Mokuba said now, looking out through the open door at the group still on the roof. "If they havta go down through the building, they'll probably run into more of Del Vinci's goons!"

"Very well, then," Pegasus said smoothly.

Seto grunted. "I make the orders around here," he retorted, giving Pegasus a side-long glance. "But fine. Go down and retrieve them."

"So grouchy, as usual," Pegasus commented with a mock pout.

As the helicopter descended, the sounds of police sirens could be heard in the near distance. And when Mokuba looked down, he could see a group far below them out on the sidewalk. He breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone had made it out and would be alright.

* * *

The officers who had been assigned to investigate the strange goings-on at Julio Industries were stunned and appalled at the sight that greeted them at the front doors—over fifty children were crowded around a small group of teenagers and adults. And at that moment, the doors opened again and a second party emerged, led by Ishmael and his cronies—and Seth. They had separated from the others long ago, suspecting that more children were being held captive in another part of the building. And sure enough, another twenty-five to thirty children were with them.

"Hey!" Tristan called, smiling in relief when he saw the officers and praying to high heaven that these were not among the ones who were crooked (but Duke didn't seem worried, so Tristan supposed the policemen were on the level). The hazel-eyed boy was clutching a mild shoulder wound. Indeed, they had been attacked more than once on their way to find the exit, but they had managed to come out on top in the end—though most of them has sustained various injuries. And thankfully, none of the children had been harmed any worse than they already had been.

"What's been happening here!" one of the officer exclaimed, recognizing several of the children as ones who had been listed as _Missing_ over the last few days. Why were they all here now? It seemed strange and ironic that they were all outside Julio Industries, a toy company.

"It's a long story," Tristan replied.

"And that's putting it mildly," Duke added.

* * *

By the time the police had gotten statements from everyone, arrested Del Vinci and his minions, and were sorting out which children went to which home, and after the injured had been treated by KaibaCorp doctors, it was very late and all of our friends were highly exhausted.

Seto was now going about, talking to the employees there and getting the details on the earlier attack by Del Vinci's men. They had gone all through the infirmary, apparently having been searching for Alister to take him back to Del Vinci, but upon not finding him they had left without harming anyone. Seto was annoyed at the incident, but relieved that it hadn't been any worse than it had been. He intended to sue Del Vinci for that as well as for everything else.

"Man," Joey groaned, "I can't believe all of this happened in just a couple of days! It's crazy!" He slumped down in a chair at the KaibaCorp infirmary, looking around blearily at the others. He felt as though he could sleep for days. And when he glanced at the nearby wall clock, his mouth dropped open as it cheerfully announced that the time was three-thirty in the morning.

"Oh well," Yugi smiled, "let's look on the bright side. We actually did get things solved before Christmas, Joey!" He leaned against the wall, tired but relieved. They would be able to have a peaceful, happy Christmas now—and more importantly, all of those poor children and their families would be able to.

Marik glanced over at them idly as he conversed with Mokuba. The child was overjoyed that everything had worked out well and that his brother was back safely. And he was grateful to Marik and to Alister for helping Seto to fight the ninjas and rescue him.

"It's your birthday, isn't it, Marik?" Mokuba chirped.

Marik blinked in surprise. He hadn't told anyone about it, but it was true that today—December 23rd—was his birthday. "Well, yes," he admitted. But he had never done much to celebrate it in the past. To him, his birthday wasn't really that special of a day. It marked the anniversary of when he had received the scars on his back—and of Yami Marik's birth as well. Usually Marik's birthday went by without much acknowledgement of the date—well, on Marik's part at least. Ishizu and Rishid always tried to do something special for him, which he appreciated.

"Are you gonna do anything for it?" Mokuba persisted.

Marik shrugged. "I don't know," he said slowly. "Ishizu will probably fix a special breakfast."

"Well, we should do something, too," Mokuba said brightly.

Marik smiled, but offered no suggestions. He would let Mokuba figure something out.

* * *

Valon yawned, blinking his blue eyes as he came out of the examination room. He had been injured the worst of any of them, but it seemed that he would survive. Right now the doctor had recommended rest, and he wasn't about to argue. After that experience, he was anxious to go home and sleep. Even so, he looked around, hoping to see Mai again before he and the others left.

He was rewarded as the blonde woman came over to him. "You never did tell me what it was you'd found," she remarked quietly after telling him that she was now going to leave.

Valon smiled a bit, leaning in closer to Mai. "What I found," he said softly, looking into her confused violet eyes, "is _somewhere I belong._" She didn't push him back, so he took the opportunity to kiss her gently on the lips before pulling away. He wanted badly to add, _And you belong with me,_ but he knew that she didn't see things that way and so he kept silent on that thought.

Mai stared at him, watching as he turned and limped back over to Raphael and Alister, who were both waiting for him. _Somewhere I belong. . . ._ She repeated Valon's words in her mind over and over. Yes . . . that was true. He had found a place where he belonged—with the other two former Doom members. They cared about him and wanted him to be happy. And even when they had all been with Doom, that had been apparent. Mai couldn't forget how angry Raphael had been when she had snapped at Valon and treated him cruelly after he had jumped off the balcony to save her during her first duel with Joey. Valon was probably like a younger brother to the two older bikers, someone to be looked out for and protected.

Did she have anything like that? She used to feel as though maybe she belonged with Yugi and Joey and their friends. But then again, she had always felt a bit like an outsider in their group. It had seemed to her that no one really understood her or what she was suffering . . . until Valon had come along. But she didn't really feel like she fit in with him and his friends, either. There was a mutual dislike between her and Raphael and Alister, though it hadn't been quite as apparent on Alister's part (since he rarely made his feelings known unless he was extremely passionate about an injustice). And Valon loved her in a way that she simply didn't return. . .

_Do I have somewhere I belong?_

She realized she didn't know the answer.


	20. Epilogue

**Notes: And here we are at the end again! Wow. Thanks to all who've been reviewing and enjoying! I've already got the next mystery being planned, so it will probably be up soon. I've really had fun writing this mystery fic. It pleased me especially to introduce the bikers into the mystery fic universe. :smile.:**

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* * *

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**Epilogue**

After everyone spent the day resting, they met at the Kaiba Manor in the evening for a combination Christmas party and celebration of Marik's birthday. Seto, of course, was not thrilled with the idea of so many people wandering through his house, but he decided he could remain in his home office if things became too insane. Mokuba's pleading, he found, was hard to resist.

And so that was how so many people came to be there, all in the massive den. They had enjoyed a scrumptious dinner prepared by Velma and Anna and now were all lounging about to visit and to tie up the loose ends of the case. This time, it didn't seem that there were quite as many.

"So," Joey said as he leaned back into the soft couch, "I guess all those freaky disappearances were Del Vinci's idea?" His eyes widened as he sank far into the softness. It was a lot more comfortable than he had been imagining.

"Yeah," Duke nodded. "Most of them were like those kids and Emma—hostages taken in order to force some of the more reluctant employees to keep working for Del Vinci. Others, though, like Alister and Gabrielle, just knew too much." He looked over at Serenity and smiled at her. She was sitting by Joey, with Tristan on her other side. Duke had been frustrated at first that he hadn't been able to claim a place beside her, but he figured there wasn't any point in letting her see how frustrated he was. And anyway, he had managed to sit by her during dinner—much to Tristan's displeasure.

"We were right after all," Tristan smirked triumphantly. "Gabrielle wasn't one of the dirty cops. I knew she couldn't be. After all, she's helped us out so many times."

Duke shrugged. "Well, good for you," he retorted, tossing some stray hair away from his face. He didn't know Gabrielle as well as Tristan and some of the others did, and with the way she had been acting with him when she had been being controlled, it had only been natural for him to think that she was a traitor.

"It sounds like you were all having an awful time again!" Serenity cried.

"Oh well, that's how it goes," Tristan said nonchalantly. "Luckily, I was there, so we all got out safely."

Duke raised an eyebrow. "I don't remember you being all that helpful," he retorted.

"And what about you?" Tristan shot back. "You totally vanished and fell down some trap door that'd been set up for you on purpose!"

Duke didn't seem bothered by this remark. "But I found Emma," he retorted. "And there were others like her being held there as well. When the police went there earlier today, they found at least a dozen other elderly captives."

"Hey, that's one thing that hasn't been solved," Téa spoke up suddenly, her blue eyes showing how troubled she was by the fact. "Who was controlling Gabrielle?"

Yugi looked troubled as well. "That's true, Téa," he realized. "That didn't get solved." He uneasily wondered if they would soon find out who had been responsible. Usually strange things like that didn't happen for no reason.

"And somethin' else that didn't get solved is why Del Vinci's goons were in Cooperstown," Joey said, noticing a tray of MnM's on the coffee table and greedily grabbing a handful.

Alister looked at Joey with a raised eyebrow at that comment. (Mokuba had invited him and the other two bikers to come as well, and they had accepted. Mai, however, hadn't been located. But that wasn't really a surprise.) "Cooperstown?" he repeated. He, Valon, and Raphael had gone through a disastrous experience in that ghost town once (though that is a tale for another time).

"Yeah," Joey blinked. "You know the place?"

"Know it!" Valon repeated. "Crikey, we all almost kicked the bucket there!" Now he, also, grabbed some of the MnM's. "I'm tellin' you—those spirits must hate visitors."

Marik shook his head. "I'm not anxious to go back there," he remarked.

"Nor am I," Rishid said quietly, and he knew Ishizu felt the same. They had almost lost Marik when they had journeyed to the old mining community. Rishid still shuddered inwardly when he remembered it.

Bakura sighed, petting Oreo slowly. "Father is out tonight," he said, changing the subject. "He took Frances to some fancy restaurant." He bit his lip, looking down. Secretly he was worried that his father might be going to propose to her before long—and Bakura doubted that she would make a good wife. She just wanted something from the man, and Bakura was determined to find out what.

"I don't think any of us have even met this Frances," Tristan said now, it just dawning on him.

"Well . . . that's probably a good thing," Bakura answered slowly. He doubted Frances would really like any of them. He was certain she didn't like him, though she put on a good act when Bakura's father was around.

Abruptly there was a crash in the kitchen and a yelp from Velma. Then came a raucous cackle and they all knew that Yami Bakura had got into the raw meat. Bakura winced at the image he was getting in his mind of the thief chomping down on a too-rare steak, crumbs and blood flying in all directions. He shook his head and decided to concentrate on thinking of other things.

"So he's not gonna drink any eggnog this year, Bakura?" Tristan smirked in amusement. Raphael looked at him curiously for this remark but then decided it must be some in-joke.

"I think he's quite had his fill of it," the silvery-haired boy replied. Oreo meowed in agreement. _Though, I'm sure I saw him hoarding the apple cider again. . . . I hope it wasn't hard. . . ._

"Well, I've had my fill of dealing with Del Vinci," Mokuba shuddered. "This whole holiday season has been really wild." Though Seto did not offer any comment to this, Mokuba knew his brother agreed. It had been much too wild.

"I'm ready for things to just settle down for a while," Téa agreed.

"But they probably won't," Marik remarked pessimistically. "After all, there's that strange person whom you and some of the others met, the one who was fighting Shadi in the sky." He didn't like the sound of that and neither did Ishizu. Some of her vision still hadn't been fulfilled, so it was likely that what hadn't would come to pass very soon. And that odd character might very well play a part in it all.

"That really was weird," Joey admitted. "And Shadi said that thing about havin' the other guy's wounds as well as his own. That didn't even make sense!"

Yami Yugi was silent as he listened to them speak of this. It sounded familiar to him. And though he had regained most all of his memories by now, there were certain parts that were still in the recesses of his mind. He decided that he would have to sit and meditate on this. Maybe he would be lucky and be able to recover the memories of why it—and the strange lightning storm from last night—seemed familiar to him. It was almost as if he had seen it all somewhere before. If that were so, then he also must know the one who possessed such powers.

"Well, at least some good things came out of all of this," Serenity said, smiling a bit. "Del Vinci's caught now. And you managed to get all of those poor kids and other people free. And you've even found some more old friends." She looked shyly at the bikers. They seemed like nice people to her. Valon was open and friendly—and reminded her a bit of her brother in a way—while Alister and Raphael were more quiet and reserved, but all three of them had been very brave and noble throughout the experiences they had just come through.

"Well," Tristan mused, "I dunno that I'd exactly call them 'old friends.' I mean, since they were in Doom and all."

"Ah well," Valon shrugged, "that's all past now. Right?" It was true that they had once fought on opposite sides, but when Valon and Joey had dueled they had come to respect each other greatly. And all three of the bikers had come to see that what Dartz had been doing wasn't right and it wouldn't have the end result they all wanted. The time of Doom was long past.

"Sure," Mokuba spoke up with a smile. "You guys were all misled by Dartz. You weren't really trying to do anything wrong." He had always felt sorry for Alister, who had only been heartbroken over his brother's death and had wanted to stop the one whom he had believed was responsible. Mokuba figured the other two bikers had similarly good intentions. He was relieved that they had all eventually seen Doom for what it was.

Joey snapped on the radio idly, just as _Silent Night_ began to play. "Sure," he said cheerfully, "we're all pals now." He munched on another MM, hoping that there wouldn't be any more mysteries to solve at last until after the holidays were over. The last thing he wanted to do now was get involved in a case over Christmas.

Ishizu looked at Marik, smiling gently. "Has this been a good birthday for you, my brother?" she asked quietly.

Marik looked back and smiled too as he nodded. It was really one of the only enjoyable ones he had had during his short life. At other times there had always been something to torment him—his father, Yami Marik, his own feelings of revenge and hatred. . . . But now he had his siblings—and so many friends as well. Right now he felt at peace and happy.

"It's snowing again!" Mokuba exclaimed now in delight. Snow at Christmas just seemed right.

Seto smiled just very slightly, enjoying his brother's enthusiasm. He had all that he wanted for Christmas.

Joey and Tristan looked at each other and smirked knowingly. They were plotting to create their annual "snowman warzone" on Tristan's lawn. Tristan's parents weren't especially happy about this going on, but they had come to accept that it would happen now. The neighbors, on the other hand, all looked forward to it and found it amusing.

Téa rolled her eyes, recognizing that look. But then she smiled, looking around the room and thinking how grateful she was for such wonderful friends. She wondered sadly if Mai would ever truly feel like she was a part of their group. Once, she had thought that the blonde woman did feel that way—but it seemed that they had all been wrong.

Now Yami Bakura wandered into the room, holding a raw turkey drumstick and munching on it greedily. "What?" he growled upon seeing everyone staring at him.

"That's disgusting!" Joey cried.

But Oreo didn't seem to think so. She meowed and ran over, demanding her share. Yami Bakura grumbled and muttered, but then gave her some of the meat. The cat purred loudly.

"Just don't spill blood on the carpet," Seto grunted.

Yami Bakura muttered some more in reply.

And, as our friends continued to relax inside, they were being unknowingly spied on by a certain shadowy figure in a nearby tree. "Soon," Runihura purred thoughtfully. "Very soon now you will know about me." He smirked, the long scar on the left side of his face apparent. "And then you will probably wish that you didn't." With that he vanished into the heavily falling snow, leaving them to enjoy their Christmas in peace.


End file.
